The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded contracts worth more than £2m for companies to develop improved Electro-Optics and Infrared (EOIR) sensor capabilities, it has been announced.

Specifically, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has awarded 13 contracts worth a total of £2.3 million for what is described as a key military capability for surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition, threat warning and target detection.

The Advanced Vision 2020 and Beyond competition, run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), sought innovation and novel approaches from industry, including small and medium-sized enterprises and academia.

Potential use cases identified include:

• Imaging in difficult environments such as through clouds or smoke, low or no light, and through foliage or camouflage
• Detecting and identifying small targets such as drones, snipers, people, weapons, and vehicles
• Identifying objects more than 20km away and classify friendly or adversary vehicles

EOIR sensors offer a complementary approach to radio frequency sensors, says DASA. They could be able to detect objects in environments where radar is challenged or to operate against objects that have a naturally lower radar signature so are harder to identify.

“The ever evolving nature of military operations means that we wish to invest in novel and resilient technologies that can function in contested and congested environments, that will extend the range, lower the cost and size, and expand the range of targets that can be addressed by EOIR sensors,” said Dstl project manager Andy Cole.

Those companies awarded contracts are:

• Thales
• Teledyne e2v
• University of Strathclyde
• University of Exeter
• QinetiQ (2 funded proposals)
• University of Stirling
• Heriot-Watt University
• University of Bristol
• Iceni Labs
• Frazer-Nash Consultancy
• Living Optics
• Spectra Medical

“It is fantastic to be part of a world class team developing a new and novel infrared detector capability,” said Peter Stocken, Business Development Manager – Space & Defense Imaging at Teledyne e2v. “The funding awards will accelerate the realisation of this technology and they reflect the high confidence in Teledyne e2v’s development in detector and associated technologies.”