History and Key Developments

In its long history, and since being reformed as Dstl in 2001, the origins of innovation for military support can be traced back to the 17th Century and the founding of the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, later to become the Woolwich Arsenal.

This capability and expertise has led to many developments that find every day uses and have in some cases considerably transformed the way we live today. A summary of the key developments:

1908 - First manned flight by Samuel F Cody commissioned by the Admiralty

1916 - Porton Down established to investigate methods to detect and protect troops from gas attacks in WW1

1926 - R&D unit established to work on ASDIC the forerunner to sonar now widely used in maritime applications.

1926 - Jet engine axial flow experimental compressor experiments begin at Farnborough

1935 - Research commenced in to locating aircraft using radio waves known as Radio Direction Finding (RDF) later to be renamed RADAR. In addition to air safety improvements generally now used for meteorology and air traffic control.

1945 - Transonic & Supersonic aerodynamic research at Farnborough, leading to development of the English Electric Lightning Aircraft. Further supersonic work 10 years later would be influential in the development of Concorde.

1945 - BABS (Beam Approach Beacon System) invented – the first radar controlled aircraft instrument landing system; an early version of the ILS (Instrument Landing System) now used by most civilian airports.

Late 1940’s - Work on Infra red devices leads to development of modern thermal imaging

1950’s - investigations commence in to Gallium Arsenide used as the basis for semi-conductors and integrated circuits (IC’s or microchips)

1960’s - In conjunction with BDH Chemical co. and Hull University LCD (Liquid Crystal Displays) and Speech recognition software work commenced

1963 - Carbon Fibre developed at Farnborough

1970’s - Image recognition and analysis capability plus Neural Networks and work on ARPANET the foundation for the Internet

1983 - High Resolution X-Ray detector crystals used in applications for body and brain scanners

1989 - Surface Acoustic Wave technology developed later to be used in communication systems such as mobile phones.

1997 - Thrust SSC the land speed record holder developed at Farnborough

2001 - ‘Foot and Mouth’ hits the UK, Dstl staff provide expertise to reduce the effect of the catastrophe

2001 - 9/11 Terror attacks, Dstl laboratories provide extensive support

2004 - Plasma coating developed to protect troops from chemical attack commercialised (P2i) as a waterproof coating for various civilian uses

2005 - 7/7 London bombings forensic expertise used to support the Metropolitan Police

2006-2007 - MRSA detection system developed to identify infection within 5 hours, reducing patient infection in hospitals