CREST to investigate future electronic surveillance technologies

The Collaborative Research in Electronic Surveillance Technology (CREST) consortium - jointly led by the UK arm of research group QinetiQ and Chemring's Roke Manor Research business - has been contracted by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to manage a three-year programme of Communications and Cross-Cutting Electronic Surveillance (CCCES) research.

Managed through the MoD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the CCCES programme will investigate novel technologies and techniques in support of future MoD electronic surveillance procurements. A key feature of the research, for which QinetiQ is providing overall programme management, will be to undertake field demonstrations to assist in the de-risking of advanced signal processing techniques.

CREST will investigate a range of CCCES technologies, with its research being split into two main areas: communications electronic surveillance covering development of techniques and algorithms to prosecute a range of communication signals in modern environments, and other signals such as jammers; and cross-cutting technologies covering collaborative high-precision geolocation techniques and research on radar and communications electronic surveillance integration.

According to QinetiQ, CREST will deliver outputs across a range of technology readiness levels and build a number of research and technology demonstrator systems.