Smiths Detection Delivers First Manportable Chemical Agent Detector to UK MOD.

Business Editors

WATFORD, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2003

Following successful acceptance trials, Smiths Detection has commenced delivery of the new manportable chemical agent detector (MCAD) to the UK Ministry of Defence. The contract, worth around GBP16 million, was awarded by the Ministry's Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and calls for MCAD to be delivered to an agreed schedule.

MCAD is part of a two-tier detection philosophy that has been adopted by the UK for the field detection of chemical warfare agents and TICS (toxic industrial chemicals). The second detection system is an attack-level detector, LCAD (Lightweight Chemical Agent Detector), also being produced by Smiths Detection. The contract is being run and managed by the DPA's Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) Integrated Project Team (IPT).

Bill Mawer Managing Director of Smiths Detection said, "We are delighted that delivery of MCAD has started. Once the competitive phase of the contract was over, the Ministry's NBC IPT, plus their advisers at Dstl, Porton Down, worked closely with our R & D and MCAD teams at Watford. This climate of teamwork and openness allowed a difficult leading-edge science programme to be translated into in-service equipment as quickly and economically as possible, despite daunting technical challenges."

MCAD and LCAD use a technology called Ionic Mobility Spectrometry to detect and identify chemical warfare agents and TICS, at levels at which these substances begin to cause harmful effects to troops operating in their presence.

MCAD is designed to detect and identify the agent at the most sensitive levels as well as those levels that will be fatal or cause serious incapacitation. MCAD operates from standard batteries or mains power sources. A remote display unit (RDU) relays information to people deployed away from the MCAD itself.

MCAD and the RDU are both designed so that they can connect to a battlefield information management system. This allows details of any agent detected and identified to be made available immediately and to become part of the wider information and decision making process.

About Smiths Detection. Smiths Detection is one of four operating divisions of Smiths Group plc. Formed August 1, 2003, Smiths Detection offers technologically advanced security solutions to detect and identify explosives, chemical & biological agents, weapons and contraband. Employing trace detection technology together with Smiths Heimann x-ray imaging, Smiths Detection provides screening solutions for customers in civil and military markets worldwide.