The use of biological warfare agents presents a potent physical and psychological threat to military forces and civilian populations. There is a diverse range of easily available threat agents; therefore, it is essential that biological detection systems are accurate, reliable and easy to use.

The threat posed by the variety and delivery of agents ensures that providing effective detection against biological warfare agents remains difficult and complex. Against this background, the Biological Detection System uses a number of different technologies that are selected to detect the assessed threat.

Of equal importance to accuracy of detection is the need to provide results quickly, in a way that is easily understandable for those charged with defending against the threat and implementing the necessary treatment and countermeasures.

In the Smiths Detection Biological Detection System a series of complementary detectors operate to rapidly detect and identify specific agents with confidence in near real-time.
Currently Smiths Detection is working with the Defence Science and Technology Industry (Dstl) at Porton Down to develop detection systems. In addition to this, Smiths Detection is integrating existing and proven detection systems to enable a fully capable detection suite.
In conjunction with our partners, Smiths Detection has considerable experience of producing fully integrated NBC detection systems. Our integrated systems can offer:
Biological and Chemical detection
NBC Filtration and environmental control
Radio Communications
A Power Supply
A Meteorological station
A Global Positioning Station
Surveillance Cameras