Williams Grand Prix : Advanced Engineering and Thales Collaboration Awarded Defence Industry Accolade

Williams Advanced Engineering's collaboration with Thales to provide part of a biological surveillance system for the UK Ministry of Defence has been recognised for its excellence in delivering UK armed forces with a 'world leading and unique' system to protect troops from the threat of biological attack.

The CBRN Delivery Team was presented with a Minister for Defence Procurement Acquisition Award by Harriett Baldwin MP at a ceremony at the MOD Main Building on 28 November.

The new protection system is called Biological Surveillance and Collector System (BSCS) and the first were signed into service earlier this year to be operated by the RAF Regiment.

CBRN stands for Chemical biological, radiological and nuclear and the system is designed to protect UK's forces overseas from biological attack by detecting incoming attacking particles in the air through specialised sensors and evaluating equipment.

Technical partners and experts, including Williams Advanced Engineering, were selected to build this leading edge technical solution.in collaboration with Thales.

Williams Advanced Engineering was responsible for the design and development of the innovative air detection system using expertise and learning from Formula One computation fluid dynamics (CFD) as well as testing in one of Williams' two wind tunnels. The unit was subject to a suite of testing to meet the military's travel and transportation requirements to ensure the unit should work anywhere in the world

Craig Wilson, Managing Director of Williams Advanced Engineering, said: 'Williams Advanced Engineering specialises in complex technological problem solving and bringing Formula One technology and processes to industry. We have been working closely with Thales to ensure that the BSCS is best-in-class technically, provides protection and allows the user to detect and identify the nature of biological attacks.'

Gareth Williams, Vice President of Thales UK's Security business, said: 'We are delighted to have part of the wider team to receive an award from the Minister. Our team has developed this leading edge biological surveillance capability through excellent cooperation with the experts at Dstl and DE&S and technical partners such as Williams Advanced Engineering. Working together with a strong UK supply chain - including SMEs - has been key to its success.'

After validating the design Williams Advanced Engineering will produce and test all units scheduled for deployment on military base.