Force Tech Talk 24 | The Founder Story with Mike Salmon (Part 2)
24 September 2026
Show Notes
In Part 2 of Force Tech Talk Episode 24, Chris Dawes continues his conversation with Mike Salmon, founder and Director of Engineering at Force Technologies, moving from the company's origins into the present and what comes next.
Mike explains why Force keeps a huge library of old data books, including the ICSK Master reference, and how that archive lets the team identify parts from decades-old circuit diagrams when the original manufacturer's data has disappeared from search engines entirely.
He shares examples from his own design career, including work on Concorde and 37 Force-supplied devices on the Eurofighter Typhoon, and explains why storage discipline matters as much as sourcing: stored die and components have to meet strict criteria so they still perform correctly decades later, whether that is a missile system or a navigation unit.
The conversation then moves into Mike's motorsport career, from Porsche Supercup racing at the British Grand Prix to endurance racing where his team beat a Top Gear presenter's car to a class win, before returning to business.
Mike sets out where he sees Force heading: not as a distributor or small manufacturer, but as the company customers bring a problem to when nobody else has an answer. He closes on buyer behaviour, sovereign supply chain resilience, anti-counterfeiting, and what CEO Karen Salmon is preparing to announce next.
In this episode:
- Why Force keeps a huge library of old data books, including the ICSK Master reference
- Identifying parts from decades-old circuit diagrams when the manufacturer's data has vanished from search engines
- Design work on Concorde and 37 Force-supplied devices on the Eurofighter Typhoon
- Why storage discipline matters: stored die and components meeting strict criteria to perform decades later
- From Porsche Supercup at the British Grand Prix to an endurance-racing class win
- Where Force is heading: the company you bring a problem to when nobody else has an answer
- Why chasing a cheaper part over the right one remains one of the industry’s biggest risks
- Sovereign supply chain resilience and anti-counterfeiting
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