Gaining entry to the Porton Down defence research facility leaves you with no doubt as to the secrecy of the work that goes on within. The 7,000-acre site is surrounded by multiple rows of vicious-looking barbed-wire fencing. Once at reception, all visitors are photographed for security purposes, and an escort is quickly assigned to accompany you every step of the way. This is no place for the uninvited.
This slightly unnerving experience is in marked contrast with the normality of the scene inside. Large open-plan offices are full of scientists and engineers quietly and efficiently going about their business. It’s all very matter-of-fact. Porton Down, the headquarters of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), is perceived as a forbidding fortress veiled in secrecy, yet it houses an army of down-to-earth people just getting on with their jobs.
“There is a strange dichotomy here,” admits Jonathan Lyle, chief executive of DSTL. “On one level we are a top-secret laboratory – a lot of what we do here is very highly classified and we can’t talk about it. But, on the other hand, the scientists and engineers we employ engage with a broad supply base of companies and universities. We are keen to reach out to them to solve some of the challenges that we face.”
There are plenty of preconceptions about Porton Down, which is situated just outside Salisbury. Mere mention of the place conjures up thoughts of murky biological and chemical warfare experiments going back almost a century. The facility was originally set up to provide a proper scientific basis for the British use of chemical warfare, in response to the earlier German use of it in 1915. Over the years it grew dramatically in size and scope, and by the Second World War it was responsible for all chemical weapons research, concentrating on substances such as nitrogen mustard, plus biological weapons including anthrax and botulinum toxin. Controversy came in later years, with persistent allegations of unethical human experimentation.
Today, Porton Down is far more transparent about its activities, with strong regulation providing its operational framework. It is still heavily focused on researching and developing effective defences against the threat of chemical, biological and radiological attack, but it is now also responsible for a far wider array of work in areas such as advanced materials, unmanned systems, air defence technology and situational awareness.
Threats from overhead: The lab's work now includes unmanned systems and air defence technology
“Our raison d’être here is about protecting our armed forces and protecting our citizens,” says Lyle. “We work across the whole technology spectrum.
“People coming to Porton Down instantly think of this place as being purely about chemical defence, as that’s what we have been doing on this site for nearly 100 years. But for the last decade or more this has been the headquarters of DSTL, as a whole, and what happens here now is a much broader range of activities around areas such as cyber terrorism, electronic warfare and explosives. Our activities are about keeping people safe from threat.”
There is a frontline remit to its responsibilities, too. Scientists and engineers from DSTL have been in Sierra Leone for several weeks now, as part of a team with Public Health England running diagnostics laboratories for the fight against the spread of Ebola. Its staff were also deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq for several years, providing technical and scientific advice to commanders on the ground.
Such wide responsibilities mean DSTL needs a large multi-disciplined staff. At present, it employs 4,000 people, at Porton Down and two smaller facilities in Portsmouth and at Fort Halstead in Kent. Three-quarters of its employees are professional scientists and engineers. It’s a £650 million business, primarily serving government departments such as the Ministry of Defence, but also working with the armed forces of allied nations.
Increasingly, the organisation is looking to form links with external suppliers, with which it places outsourced contracts. “Half of the billion-dollar turnover is spent externally,” says Lyle. “We work with a very wide range of companies and universities to make sure we can access the best possible science, wherever it lies. Some of these companies, such as Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems, are obviously very large. But we also work with very small companies.
“We are at the heart of a network that is working for customers in MoD and other government departments that are in the security sector, and our partners in the US, Australia, France and elsewhere.”
The bulk of DSTL’s work stems from the operational focus of the MoD. As the tactics of adversaries change, so must the technologies used to combat them. The MoD reaches back to DSTL when it needs to, expecting Porton Down scientists and engineers to find a solutions to specific problems. This occurred many times during the conflict in Afghanistan, particularly with the ever-changing threat from improvised explosive devices. DSTL’s response often led to the issuing of an urgent operational requirement, which in turn saw the development of a new piece of kit.
There is also a supply side to Porton Down’s operations, driven by innovation in industry. If DSTL sees potential in a commercial technology, it will reach out to the company that has developed it, seeking to work together for exploitation. And the third component of DSTL’s activities relates to horizon scanning – looking forward and trying to work out the impact of emerging trends such as big data, quantum technology and synthetic biology.
“We need to be thinking 10 years ahead,” says Lyle. “We need to be looking at the potential of these new technologies, both in terms of using them to our advantage, and in terms of anticipation of our adversaries looking to exploit them.”
Lyle: 'Our activities are about keeping people safe from threat'
Lyle says that threats are always evolving, which challenges his staff on a day-to-day basis. Asymmetric warfare – conflict between groups whose relative military power differs significantly – requires a different response from the threat posed by a nuclear-armed superpower, for example. “The cycle time is so much shorter now,” he says. “If you have an adversary who is very nimble then you have to have the capability to respond to that.
“We are not just sitting in a laboratory waiting for things to happen. We are highly connected to our customers with a lot of our people deployed, and we are always working to help them understand how the threat is evolving. One of our watchwords for DSTL these days is agility.”
DSTL cannot carry out such a role working in isolation. Lyle says it is increasingly looking to place research contracts with industry and academia because it wants to work with the best people, wherever they may be located. It has set up an organisation called the Centre for Defence Enterprise, which focuses on finding potential suppliers among small and medium-sized businesses. It recently published a document on its website entitled How to Sell to DSTL, encouraging external suppliers to do business with it.
Lyle admits that some small firms might find the idea of working with such a large, secretive organisation a bit daunting. But he says that a framework has been established to make the process as smooth as possible. “We will always live with the fact that Porton Down is in the title, and we have to be very careful about what we can talk about. But we are very open in saying that this is the challenge that we are facing and we need your best ideas on how you could help us.
“We seek to reach out to companies that might have a bright idea. We work hard through our publications, website and events. In my time as chief executive, I have tried to simplify the way in which we communicate that external message.”
It is the responsibility of the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE), which is based in Oxford, to engage with industry and academia through the issuing of funding opportunities and requests for proposals. CDE also holds regional workshops, helping companies to overcome any barriers to doing business with DSTL. Terms and conditions are fairly standard, says Lyle, with CDE turning contract bids around within a guaranteed period. Initial feasibility proposals might involve a relatively modest amount of money, maybe in the region of £50,000, leading to the potential of
Intelligent textiles: Weaving electronic circuitry into fabric could improve communications for soldiers in the field
A good example of this is a relationship developed between DSTL and a two-person company called Intelligent Textiles, based in Surrey. The threads of success started in 2009, when Intelligent Textiles came up with a means of weaving electronic circuitry into fabric. This brought the potential of an ‘e-jacket’: a wearable flexible circuit board that could use a single power source instead of the multiple batteries that currently weigh soldiers down. The CDE was impressed, providing funding to enable Intelligent Textiles to develop its technology.
Intelligent Textiles won a Capability Vision CDE competition focusing on the energy-efficient soldier in 2009. Asha Peta Thompson, a director at the company, says dealing with CDE was straightforward, and was an enjoyable experience. “It was great compared to some of the other funding applications,” she says. “It got straight to the nub of dealing with the technology.”
Intelligent Textiles heard quite quickly that it had got funding of £235,000 over three phases. With the first payment of £50,000 it did initial R&D. With the second tranche of £70,000, it built a soldier’s vest in which it integrated a fabric wiring harness. The final £115,000 took the technology beyond the vest to the uniform, helmet, backpack and weapons platform. “Having the technology’s risks assessed by the CDE gave us the freedom to develop, and let us stay true to our technology,” she says.
But the support went beyond funding. Through the CDE, Intelligent Textiles was introduced to military and technical advisers. And then the Technology Strategy Board – now known as Innovate UK – invited the company to exhibit at conferences. “We never would have come into contact with government ministers otherwise,” says Peta Thompson.
Those contacts led the firm to link up with BAE Systems to tender on a major initiative to reduce the burden on soldiers, the Man Worn Power and Data Technical Demonstrator Project. “We wanted someone in the industry to be able to pick up the technology and be able to supply it,” says Peta Thompson.
Now, Intelligent Textiles’ technology is due to go into trials with the US Department of Defense at the beginning of 2015. If all goes well, UK and US soldiers could be wearing their intelligent uniforms later that year. “I honestly believe that the British ground soldier system is ahead of its time. We’ve progressed ahead of other nations at the moment,” says Peta Thompson.
From DSTL’s perspective, the relationship with Intelligent Textiles is an exemplar of how it can work with a small firm for mutual advantage. “That was a very good example of a company being drawn into defence,” says Lyle.
“It was essentially an expert in weaving. But now it has done a lot of work with us in terms of building electrical fibres into clothing, and the integration of electronic devices such as antennae. It’s an intriguing combination of weaving technology and electrical technology.”
DSTL also spins out its intellectual capital into the private sector through its company Ploughshare Innovations. One such spin-out, a firm called P2i, uses waterproofing technology developed at Porton Down to protect consumer products such as mobile phones and trainers.
“P2i is a great example of a spin-out,” says Lyle. “It came out of the development of clothing for chemical weapons protection, effectively a technology that stopped liquid from penetrating garments. That has been taken into the clothing sector but also around waterproofing mobile devices.”
In the field: DSTL staff were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to give technical advice to operational commanders
DSTL’s business model is to either license its technology to a company to deliver royalties, or to take an equity stake in the spun-out firm. “It’s quite a challenging environment,” admits Lyle, “you have to back quite a few horses to get the big winner, but that bankrolls everything else. The rationale isn’t all about making money – it’s about the broader public good for the British economy, such as creating jobs and raising taxation.”
Another example of DSTL intellectual property being reworked for commercial application is a relationship with industrial giant Tata to market a super bainite steel that was originally developed for the protection of armoured vehicles. It has also spun-out a sophisticated netting technology which was developed to protect operating bases from certain types of missile attack. That now provides the basis for a safety and security product for the aviation, transport and logistics sectors.
Lyle says: “It starts with the combination of ideas and intellectual property that resides here with our very able scientists and engineers. But more often than not the exploitation and application of that requires a degree of industrial horsepower that we haven’t necessarily got. So we work in partnership to create a product that can be sold in export markets.”
Looking to the future, Lyle says that he expects DSTL to continue strengthening its links with industry and academia. The laboratory is now responsible for managing the MoD’s entire £400 million research budget, and relationships with external suppliers will remain central to what it does.
For Lyle, the challenge is to make sure that companies feel confident about doing business with DSTL. “We have to make sure that people don’t just see us as an organisation that sits inside the fence and cannot be accessed,” he says.
DSTL recently published its corporate plan for 2014-19, identifying 19 future and disruptive technologies that will frame the defence and security landscape. Preparing for the future will evidently require agile and open minds. “We need to stay ahead of the game,” says Lyle. “We need to be looking forward to future operations. That involves a lot of horizon scanning.”
The laboratory will also be expected to play a role in the formation of a defence review following next year’s general election. And it will inevitably have to exist within any new financial environment a new government might bring. “Finances are limited, so we have to deliver work cost-effectively and efficiently,” he says. “Public expenditure will be constrained. But we have seen growth in revenues and are ready to cope with whatever happens.”
From a personal perspective, Lyle says he loves his role as chief executive of DSTL, which he describes as the most amazing place he has ever worked. “It’s been the most amazing experience, and that comes down to the fact that the work we do is at the heart of the nation’s security.
“I know that on any day people here will have done something that will have made a difference to other people’s lives. Someone somewhere is applying their science and engineering knowledge to keep people safe.
“And it’s because of the enthusiasm and commitment of the people that I lead. It’s just a joy to work with such a talented bunch of scientists and engineers. They are all so motivated to make a difference. It’s an absolute privilege to lead such a bunch of tremendously impressive people.”
Lyle says that it helps that he is an engineer. “I’m proud to be an engineer and I still think like one,” he says. “I like to understand how things work. I like to fix things. And that applies to the way I lead the business. The great thing about the job is that I still get to see a lot of engineering. In visiting other laboratories and suppliers, I do get to talk to people and to touch and feel the engineering that we perform.” So being an engineer makes him a better chief executive? “I’d like to think so,” he says.
The rights and wrongs of animal testing
Porton Down has a controversial history, with books having been written about experiments carried out decades ago on members of the armed forces that allegedly saw them exposed to toxic nerve agents.
These days human experimentation is restricted to physiological testing of equipment and clothing. DSTL is a highly regulated business, with the Defence Safety and Environment Authority, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency ensuring that all its activities are carried out to prescribed and transparent standards.
But ongoing work around countering the threat from chemical and biological weapons and from newly emerging diseases means that animal testing is still required at Porton Down, and chief executive Jonathan Lyle is well aware that that remains a hugely contentious issue.
“It’s something that everyone who works here has to think about, whether they are comfortable about that. If they are not then they shouldn’t be working here. It’s something I wrestled with when I came here,” he says.
When talking about animal testing Lyle says he reminds people that it is done for a purpose – to help protect people from harm. “We do it in a very careful way, the way in which we operate is very highly regulated by the Health and Safety Executive and others. In relation to animals, all our people are licensed by the Home Office. But you can’t escape the fact that animals die in the process.”
Lyle says that DSTL does all it can to minimise animal testing activities. “Wherever we can develop alternate methods then we do so. But unfortunately, and inescapably, there are things that you have to prove using animals.
“I don’t see many human volunteers who want to be injected with Ebola and see what happens. It’s the means by which we understand the disease better.”