The interweaving of the second and third industrial revolutions is creating a fourth industrial revolution that involves the continuous and cyclical flow of information and actions between the physical and digital worlds. This revolution can potentially create a hyper-connected defence-industry-research-academia ecosystem able to continually innovate, overturning many of our traditional conceptions of defence equipment manufacturing and long term support while confirming Alvin and Hedi Toffler’s claim that “the way we make war reflects the way we make wealth”.  The fourth industrial revolution creates the possibility of a future defence force structure that can rapidly evolve to meet emerging operational demands. The time lag between new challenges arising and technological responses to those challenges may drop dramatically. Continual innovation could become the dominant quality of future defence forces.