Serco wins £13 million sensor contract

and five partners have won a £13 million two-year contract to design, manufacture and supply the

with an advanced network sensor management system.

The new system will be able to combine the output from a wide variety of sensors, including those detecting and identifying chemical, biological or radiological attacks.

Serco will supply the nine Integrated Sensor Management Systems, including a quantity of network biological sensor systems, to the MoD’s Nuclear Biological & Chemical (NBC) Integrated Project Team (IPT).

In the face of the possibility of an attack using NBC weapons, there is a need to quickly and accurately present local commanders with an integrated sensor picture. According to Serco, the challenge is to provide an intelligent and integrated network of CBRN sensors that will be able to feed fused data into the NBC Battlefield Information System Application (BISA).

In addition to supplying the new systems, the contract also includes the supply of new bio-detectors. These are meant to reduce the number of biological false positive alarms, which prompt soldiers to take unnecessary precautions. Serco’s mathematical modelling work in data analysis will enable the system to recognise 'interferents', such as pollen or diesel exhaust fumes, as benign and screen them out from real threats.