A few titbits of DSEI News from the 'opposition' -

"Brussels awards 'homeland security' contracts

By : Tracey Boles September 11, 2005, the business online

BRUSSELS is stepping up plans for a E1bn (£680m, $1.25bn) "homeland security" programme for Europe's borders and ports by awarding technology research contracts to Thales UK, EADS and Siemens.

Thirteen programmes have been selected from more than 150 submitted to the European Commission under an initiative, the European Preparatory Action on enhancement of Security Research.

In 2007, Brussels plans to launch a E1bn security programme to protect its 6,000km of land borders and 85,000km of coastlines.

Two big studies that will feed into this include "Sobcah" - surveillance of borders, coastlines and harbours - and "Seccondd" - to develop standardised data on secure containers. Thales UK will receive funding for both; the contracts will be announced at this week's international defence systems exhibition, DSEI, in London.

The sheer number of containers passing through the world's 1,000 ports each year - 250m - makes them vulnerable to terrorist attack. It would be easy to plant devices, chemicals or people in the freight boxes, experts say. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2003 cited the example of a man stowing away inside a freight container with his own toilet, who was only caught when he tried to widen some air holes.

One of the programmes to receive funding, Thales' experimental "smart" freight container, which can detect tampering or stowaways, has just completed its first overseas journey.

Thales hopes its technology will reduce running costs for shipping companies. An average container trip costs $1,000. The use of security systems may become mandatory under government legislation, however. The US is leading the drive towards legislation to protect ports and shipping. The global nature of the threat is behind Europe's drive to co-ordinate the various programmes on its soil.

Thales uses a mixture of off-the-shelf and state-of-the-art sensors to track the smart container's position, monitor its contents and check its integrity. If somebody drills a hole in the side of the container, a message can be sent back to control centre's webserver through a GPS modem.

The smart container returned to Britain on 2 September from its first overseas trip to Germany and Poland.

Next week, a trade mission to market the UK's martime security services will visit the United States. Defence researcher Qinetiq is also working on a smart box."

BT and AdVal Learning Solutions (ALS) join forces for DSEi 2005 Press release -nAdVal Learning Solutions | Aylesbury, Bucks | 19-Aug-2005.

AdVal Learning Solutions (ALS) will be launching its learning content through the Defence Learning Portal (DLP), developed by BTat the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition being held from the 13th to 16th September at Excel, London, UK.

DSEi is one of the world's fastest growing tri-service defence exhibitions and offers ALS and BT the opportunity to highlight the impact that e-learning is having in military training. "

.......nice to seee our privatised ( and very crap )telephone service is getting well into the military game....