QinetiQ has secured a contract to monitor and demonstrate developments in gaming, mobile devices and other commercially-available technologies for the benefit of UK armed forces.
Awarded by the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the £3.6m contract requires the company and its partners, Cranfield University, NSC and XPI Simulation to work on the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and emerging technologies evaluation and exploitation (CETEE) programme.
The programme seeks identification, evaluation, integration and exploitation of innovative technologies to enhance the cost-effectiveness of the training and simulation opportunities received by the UK armed forces.
QinetiQ Training MD Dr Miles Adcock said the contract is a key foundation to the future of the company’s training business.
”There has been a phenomenal proliferation of home entertainment, mobile devices and other information and computing technologies over the last ten years and it is vital to keep at the forefront of these innovations and exploit them into the areas of defence and security,” Adcock said.
Dstl CTO Andy Bell said the CETEE programme embodies the Dstl’s vision to work in collaboration with industry and academia.
Bell said, ”By exploiting the opportunities presented by commercial and emerging technologies, we can leverage non-defence investment for use in defence, supporting recommendations from both SDSR and the ‘National Security Through Technology’ White Paper.
”CETEE has great potential to provide innovative, agile research which will further our understanding of how COTS can impact on the defence and security of the UK.”
CETEE is being delivered as part of the DSTL synthetic environments tower of excellence (SE Tower) programme, which enables the MOD, industry and academia to join forces to build capability through research into future training and simulation requirements.