Barnard Microsystems Limited

Our aim is to develop and maintain a top tier, highly professional, Unmanned Aircraft Systems design, development and test capability. We will do this through a focus on:

• innovative research and development
• design of very reliable systems
• high quality engineering
• the building of long term relationships with top ranking companies, organisations and Universities.

Our aim is to operate in the civilian, the security and the defence sectors. Our activities cover Unmanned Aircraft Systems design for use in oil, gas and mineral exploration, pipeline and installation monitoring and in the detection of threats to military personnel.

A few points...

• There is a slight mix-up of the environment for some oil and gas exploration activities, where there is a need for low level flying over the arctic regions to measure the earth's magnetic field, and the military environment.
• The bit about "enabling soldiers to attack from afar" is attributable to the editor's vivid imagination.
• I think the bit about each Team "must overcome a series of obstacles including explosives and hidden snipers" may convey an impression of the event that is at variance with reality. The aim is simply to identify the location of several types of potential threats to military personnel.

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On the 5th of September, several Teams participating in the MoD Grand Challenge, including the Barnard Microsystems Team, were invited by Mohan Ahad of MBDA to visit the impressive MBDA site at Filton, Bristol, to discuss ways in which MBDA and the Teams could work together to use the NEMESIS software developed at MBDA.

"MBDA and Barnard Microsystems have agreed in principle to collaborate on participating in the MoD Grand Challenge, where MBDA has offered to develop NEMESIS (Network Enabled Multi-Environment System Integration Solution) which is essentially an information handling system to support a semi-autonomous vehicle in an urban environment. The intention is to build the architecture based on software modules and middleware provided by MBDA, which would then allow Barnard to add and test their own algorithms, vehicles and sensors. NEMESIS should permit these components to operate as a system..."

- from the introduction to the Non Disclosure Agreement signed between MBDA and Barnard Microsystems Limited

MBDA: A WORLD LEADING MISSILE SYSTEMS COMPANY

With an annual turnover of over €3 billion, an order book of over €13 billion and more than 70 customers around the world, MBDA is a world leading guided missiles and missile systems company.

MBDA was created in 2001 following the merger of Europe’s major businesses in the sector: Matra BAe Dynamics in the UK and France, Aerospatiale Missiles in France, the missiles activities of Alenia Marconi Systems in the UK and Italy and EADS/LFK in Germany. MBDA is jointly owned by BAE Systems (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and Finmeccanica (25%).MBDA currently has 45 missile system and countermeasure programmes in operational service around the world and has proven its ability as prime contractor to head major multi-national projects.

- from http://www.mbda.co.uk/

The MBDA Filton centre is on the same site as other BAE Systems buildings, including the BAE Systems Sowerby Research Centre, reflecting their common heritage.

- from Google Earth

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Dr Joe Barnard of the Barnard Microsystems Team with Jon Exton and Roy King, both of the Dragon Air Systems Team, at a meeting on Friday 24th August at the BML Lab in North London, discussing areas of mutual interest, especially the potential use of the Dragonfly Air Systems platform.

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Lt Col Philip Poole of the Defence Academy of the UK discusses with Dr Joseph Barnard of Barnard Microsystems the nature of the contributions BML could make to the UK Defence Capability Centre by way of communicating the capabilities of emerging technologies, such as those that will be used in the MoD Grand Challenge:

• material for a poster board, where the boards are 1.8 m wide and 1.5 m tall

• presentation material for use in lectures, in Power Point format

• hardware demonstrators

• video footage of system demonstrators, emphasising system capabilities from a defence perspective

At the meeting on Monday, 20th August, 2007, Dr Barnard offered to supply the Defence Capability Centre with contributions in all of the above categories, with particular emphasis on the technology to be used in the MoD Grand Challenge, including versions of the Unmanned Aircraft to be used by the BM Team in the MoD Grand Challenge.

There is tremendous opportunity to display new defence capabilities arising from emerging technologies. This part of the Defence Capability Centre supports multiple, large, video displays and static demonstrators where the DCC staff and any invited personnel can make presentations to a select and influential audience.

Hardware demonstrators of emerging technologies are very much welcomed. One possibility is to hang some Unmanned Aircraft from the ceiling.

An example of a poster board that is used to present the capabilities of emerging technologies. Other participants in the MoD Grand Challenge who wish to contribute material that might be used at the Defence Capability Centre are encouraged to contact Lt Col Poole at ppoole.dcm@da.mod.uk .

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Roger Xuereb Archer, Managing Director of Alliance based in Malta discusses the development of a business relationship with Dr Joseph Barnard, Managing Director of Barnard Microsystems based in the U.K. at a meeting in London on Monday, 6th August 2007. Malta is well placed as a centre of oil and gas exploration activities in North Africa, and especially in the untapped regions of Libya.

Map courtesy Google Earth.

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