FARNBOROUGH — In what the U.K.s prime minister calls a remarkable turnaround in our defense budget, the country is planning to invest GBP1.1 billion in its military.

Kicking off the 2014 Farnborough air show, David Cameron pledged to add GBP800 million for the U.K. special forces, for cyber defense and for intelligence, surveillance target acquisition and reconnaissance (Istar) equipment to fight terrorism. The government will also provide GBP300 million to purchase the E-Scan radar for the Typhoon fighters and an Ice Patrol Ship, HMS Protector.

The funding for Istar will extend the life of the Sentinel surveillance aircraft in service until 2018. The U.K. would also use the money to develop a future unmanned combat aerial system.

Kicking off the air show before a crowd that included Airbus CEO Tom Enders, Cameron talked about the interplay of economics and national security. The investment in defense is assisted by economic recovery and will help the UK invest further in its industrial base.

It wasnt enough to grow the economy, but we also wanted to rebalance our economy away from the bad old days of big debt and big spending, Cameron said in the brief speech. He said he sought to move toward something that was healthier, towards exports ideas, innovation and high-tech manufacturing. It is this vision of Britain that once again is making things and selling them to the world.

Aerospace is a central piece of that economic development, Cameron said. Thats why we set up the aerospace group partnership to put turbo boosters under this industry and all it means for the economy.

That helps the UK capitalize on the increasingly competitive global defense market of GBP82 billion a year until 2022. In 2013, U.K. defense exports increased by 11% to GBP9.8 billion, according to the prime ministers office.

Two years ago at the air show, Cameron announced the establishment of two centers, one a U.K. Defense Solutions Center to bring British companies together to identify new defense opportunities in Farnborough. He has also discussed the launch of a GBP4 million U.K. Center for Maritime Intelligent Systems in Portsmouth to develop unmanned submarines.

The prime minister wowed the small company Sigma Components with an impromptu visit to its booth at the show. Sigma benefits from investments by both U.K. economic development and the European Clean Sky effort. With those funds, the company, based in Leicestershire, has developed a composite pipe, dubbed COMPipe, that can reduce carbon emissions by 10K per aircraft engine, a potential savings of $1.5 million per aircraft over 20 years.

Engineering a pipe and fittings that can exactly replicate existing components has been incredibly challenging, when you consider that the pipe assemblies must be capable of withstanding the arduous operating environment of an aero engine, including elevated temperatures and pressures, says Mike Andreae, director of technology and improvement for Sigma.

Testing on the COMPipe project is expected to wrap up by the end of October and be ready for the commercial market two months later.