QinetiQ
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QinetiQ is a British military technology company, created out of the greater part of the government agency DERA when it was split up in June 2001. The Chief Executive at inception to the present day is Sir John Chisholm.
In solving defence and security problems they operate at the leading edge of both the development and application of science and technology. This enables them to give commercial customers access to solutions that are often beyond the state-of-the-art available in civil markets.
When QinetiQ was created, the announcement by Defence Minister Lewis Moonie said that company would become, and remain, a British company based in the UK. The Ministry of Defence would retain a 'Special Share' in the company, and safeguards will be in place to prevent conflicts of interest. In February 2003, the U.S. private equity firm the Carlyle Group acquired a 33.8% share in the company.
As a privatised company, QinetiQ is now one of the largest defence research organisations in the world. While part of DERA, the defence research sites that now form QinetiQ carried out testing, research and development, including the invention of liquid crystal displays, the technology for flat panel speakers, microwave radar, Chobham armour, and thermal imagers. In recent years QinetiQ has also developed software products, especially those for the defence and security industries.
The major sites are at Farnborough, Hampshire and Malvern, Worcestershire, each having more than 2000 employees (as of April 2005). Trials aircraft are flown out of Boscombe Down.
In September 2004 QinetiQ acquired the U.S. defence companies Westar and Foster-Miller.
External links
- QinetiQ (http://www.qinetiq.com)
- Westar (http://www.westar.com)
- Foster-Miller (http://www.foster-miller.com)