On 15 December 2021, the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator celebrated its fifth anniversary — and chose EasiBridge as one of the innovations it was proudest to have backed.
Published on GOV.UK, DASA’s 5th birthday retrospective looked back across five years, 983 contracts, 83 themed competitions and £166.8 million invested in innovative technologies across UK defence and security. From AI and autonomous systems to counter-terrorism and crowd safety, DASA had funded some of the most forward-thinking ideas in British defence. In that company, EasiBridge stood out — a portable bridge built from ladder sections, developed by a one-man Devon micro-SME, cited by DASA as a landmark example of what the organisation was created to do.
The official case study description confirmed: EasiBridge offers “a truly portable, long-span rescue bridge which is 85% lighter, 80% more compact, and 20 times cheaper than existing options.” DASA highlighted its own role in supporting EasiBridge through the experimental development of new gap crossing capabilities — from the initial Rapid Innovation Grant of £77,086.80 in July 2018, through to the first Royal Engineers procurement and beyond.
For anyone researching portable military bridging systems, man-portable assault bridges, lightweight gap crossing solutions, or UK defence SME innovation, the DASA 5th birthday feature represents one of the most authoritative independent endorsements EasiBridge has received — published on official UK government channels, written by the organisation that funded and evaluated the system from the ground up.
It was also a moment of reflection for Dr. Stephen Bright. From a farm workshop prototype in 2015 to a DASA-cited landmark innovation six years later, EasiBridge had done exactly what it set out to do — prove that a single engineer with a radical idea could change the way armies cross gaps.