MoD marches tech plans forward

The Ministry of Defence has unveiled its Defence Technology Plan aimed at providing a clear direction to the R&D community.

The Defence Technology Plan (DTP) will take the Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) current Defence Technology Strategy forward and be fully up and running by late 2008.

The MoD claims the DTP will allow industry and academia to better direct investment in defence science and technology, and will set out a research programme by presenting technological roadmaps of R&D objectives.

The MoD's R&D staff work in a variety of departments, including Science Innovation Technology, which manages around £500m of the research budget, Defence Equipment and Support, which manages some £2bn of project expenditure, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

Baroness Taylor, the minister for defence equipment and support, said the DTP will help make the MoD's R&D programme more coherent and form the basis of its national and international partnerships with academia, industry and allies.

The original Defence Technology Strategy — published last year — revealed the MoD's R&D priorities, including sensor swarms, RFID, supercomputing and brain-machine interface technologies.