A Bristol defence tech company and a London manufacturer are planning to create around 100 jobs across the South West over the next year.

West Country-based Rowden Technologies said its partnership with Isembard was a "joint effort" to scale sovereign º£½ÇÊÓÆµ manufacturing of advanced sensing systems for national security.

Rowden was established by a former Army corporal in 2016 to help the government become less reliant on multinational defence contractors.

Founder Rob Harper grew the company's sales to £20.4m last year and Rowden was named on the Sunday Times' list of fastest-growing companies this year.

The collaboration forms part of the Bristol company's multi-million-pound investment in expanding sovereign production of advanced sensing systems.

The partnership will combine Rowden’s system design, integration and in-house manufacturing expertise with Isembard’s software-defined production facilities, the companies said.

Jake Reynolds, vice president of product for Rowden Technologies, said: “This marks an exciting expansion of our supply chain, built around shared engineering ambition and outstanding British engineering talent.

"Working with innovative businesses like Isembard, we’re creating a production base capable of delivering assured º£½ÇÊÓÆµ variants of critical sensing systems - a real step forward in sovereign capability that can be exported and deliver meaningful operational value to users in Europe and beyond.â€

Andrew Kramer, strategic deployments at Isembard, said the partnership deliveried "sovereign capacity now" and laid "the foundation to export British engineering at scale".

He added: “Industrial strength is national strength. By combining MasonOS-driven factories with Rowden’s world-class mission systems, we can turn years into days and prototypes into production – here in Britain."