Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The coalition of British defence firms, led by Stevenage-based missile maker, MBDA, comprises a Who’s Who? of pioneering local armament firms.

Among the elite military technology contractors working on the project are Raytheon Systems Limited in Harlow, Cranfield University and Cranfield Aerospace, Blue Bear Systems Research, Selex, Marshall Special Vehicles and QinetiQ.

The confederation – known as Team Loitering Munitions – has been formed to develop a new type of weapon for the MoD as part of its £500m Indirect Fire Precision Attack (IFPA) artillery programme.

The team will jointly develop the technology that is required to produce the loitering munitions – capable of hovering on patrol above a battlefield for hours, while scanning and identifying potential targets, and relaying information back to control units on the ground before engaging.

A similar system is already in use by the Israeli armed forces and is now under development for the military in the United States.

Now the Ministry of Defence has identified the weapon as a candidate for its IFPA programme, designed to incrementally deliver inc-reased artillery capability to the British Army over the next two decades.

Marshall Specialist Vehicles Limited in Cambridge is understood to be developing technology to help build an aerial platform for one aspect of the proposed deployment.

Business Weekly understands that Marshall SV is working on the sensor and surveying element of the project, rather than the munitions side of the broader blueprint.

We are also told that while the technology breakthrough remains at a very early stage, loitering munitions are regarded by global military chiefs as one of the most significant battlefield developments of all time.

BAE has recently announced its £30m MoD contract win to manage a second assessment phase of the IFPA, and the loitering munition capability demonstration, running in tandem to Team Loitering Munitions.

The capability demonstration work, being conducted by Middlesex-based Ultra Electronics, will cost £14m and take place in two phases until 2008.

“The assessment phase will be carried out by a joint BAE/MoD team and will assess and review maturing munitions and technologies and associated performance, time and cost envelopes against future Defence Planning Assumptions,” BAE said in a statement.

In another East of England defence collaboration, devel-oper of miniature projection systems, Light Blue Optics (LBO) will provide aerospace and defence company, Thales, with engineering samples of its miniature projection system with a view to developing them for use in cockpit applications.

LBO’s holographic laser projection technology delivers large, full-colour, high-quality video images in focus at all distances – even on curved or angled surfaces.

This renders it ideal for use for the high-performance and highly demanding safety requirements endemic in the cockpits of military vehicles.