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March 26th 2009 - MoD research consortium led by General Dynamics UK demonstrates defence technology of the future

LONDON, United Kingdom - Academics, scientists, experts and business leaders gathered this week at the Defence Academy near Shrivenham to discuss and demonstrate the technology of the future at the final annual conference of the Defence Technology Centre in Data and Information Fusion (DIF DTC), a £60m partnership led by General Dynamics UK for the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The DIF DTC, a research consortium of high-tech companies and universities funded jointly by industry, academia and the MoD, is the first of its kind. A key plank of the UK Government’s future vision for defence technology development, it is also a vital component of the government’s Defence Industrial Strategy.
At the conference, the DIF DTC’s partners, which include Cardiff University, BT, QinetiQ, Waterfall Solutions, and eight other universities, presented their year’s work to academics, students, and representatives of industry and the Ministry of Defence. The Centre’s three-year, £30m Phase II contract, has allowed the team to develop key technologies and explore how these can be used in military and national security solutions for the future.
Since 2003, successful outputs from the earlier phases of the programme have been taken forward in seven new cluster projects, aimed at providing new capabilities at a systems level. These include cutting-edge research on how to track and predict a person’s intentions and behaviours using data about their physical makeup and movements, known collectively as biometrics.   One example of this is automatic gait recognition, which uses information about the way a person walks to identify them and analyse their possible intentions.
As well as developing sophisticated planning capabilities, the team has undertaken innovative work on how humans will interface with technology to receive and understand information in the future.
Phase 2 of the DIF DTC also sponsored a Master of Science (MSc) course in Data & Information Fusion at Cardiff University, which resulted in a significant proportion of students being employed in UK defence, both in government and in industry.
A number of technologies are already being exploited in MoD programmes and the civil sector, or have been tested and evaluated at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) in both 2007 and 2008, and at the Counter-Terrorism Centre. Others will provide valuable input for new MoD programmes such as Persistent Wide Area Surveillance (PWAS) High Impact Rapid Implementation Demonstrator (HIRID) programmes, which are intended to achieve rapid pull-through of technologies to in-theatre operational demonstration within three years.
Dr Sandy Wilson, President and Managing Director of General Dynamics UK, said, “This partnership, which has involved the MoD and General Dynamics UK working together with universities and industry, has delivered a wealth of knowledge and understanding. The DIF Defence Technology Centre has been an exciting development which has played a vital role in exploring how our defence and security forces will use data and information effectively in the future.”
Dr Andrew Tilbrook, Director of the DIF DTC, said, “Great progress has been made over the last three years and most of our major projects already have components that are being actively considered for exploitation.”
Notes to Editors:
  • The DIF DTC was established in 2003 to generate knowledge via research appropriate to future UK defence needs in relevant domains, and to enable early exploitation of knowledge generated for the benefits of UK defence. 
  • Led by General Dynamics UK, industry partners in the consortium are BT, QinetiQ and Waterfall Solutions, and academic partners are Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cranfield, de Montfort, Imperial College, Lancaster, Southampton and Surrey Universities. 
  • The DTC has already produced over 350 academically rigorous papers, a meaningful output at a rate of about nine a month, winning international acclaim for the quality of the research at leading overseas conferences.   In addition to providing the MoD with formal project deliverables, the research has led to significant spin-off benefits for industry, the universities, and the civil sector. 
  • The work done under the DIF DTC has been a key component of the MoD DIS (Defence Industrial Strategy), and will potentially feed into new initiatives announced in the Defence Technology Plan and a number of Capability Visions.
  • Digital images are also available on request.
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