Qinetiq forms MEAD consortium

Qinetiq, acting in partnership with 21 other organisations from industry, academia and the UK defence supply chain, has formed the MEMs Applications for Defence (MEAD) consortium.

MEAD’s remit is to take a new approach to developing Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology for defence purposes in an MoD backed project worth £3.2m over three years.

The MEAD consortium will bring together organisations, including SMEs spanning systems integration and MEMS device supply with key groups from the world of academia and research. Initially, the MEAD consortium will road map the technology, explore exploitation routes and investigate novel MEMS approaches for use in two defence application areas.

Firstly, the MoD has a requirement for deployable, unattended sensor networks, and Qinetiq will lead this area. Here the need is for small, lightweight, minimal cost military grade sensors that remove the need for expert placement, alignment and recovery. Typically these sensors fall into four groups: robust, low noise, high sensitivity acoustic microphones; orientation sensors; seismic sensors; and magnetic sensors.