Test and Evaluation (T&E) is a crucial part of the defence acquisition process, ensuring that equipment and capabilities are safe and fit for purpose. The provision of such services represents one of QinetiQ’s core strengths; the company owns facilities across the UK and also operates and manages a number of core T&E ranges on behalf of the MOD under the terms of a 25-year Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA). The company has a 30-year heritage of delivering vital test, evaluation and training support services throughout the UK and abroad.
QinetiQ has experts throughout the air, land and maritime domains and is investing in facilities, equipment and estate. These are all supported by commercial off-the-shelf and bespoke software, underpinned by independent advice, free of any supplier.
These T&E services cover the full spectrum of defence domains. In the air, QinetiQ has the ability to test, evaluate and assure most types of weapon systems and air platforms, including helicopters, UAVs, fast jets and heavy aircraft. On land, it offers proof, T&E and disposal of munitions, weapons systems and ordnance. At sea, QinetiQ carries out T&E for a range of marine platforms. This includes conducting torpedo and weapons tests, providing acoustic and electromagnetic signatures, compass calibration and taking radar cross-section measurements.
Some T&E services are supported by state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including a low-speed wind tunnel, used regularly by Boeing as part of a long-term agreement. Europe’s largest water tank, known as the Ocean Basin, is available to test scale models of platforms, including the new British aircraft carriers. Meanwhile, the Diving and Hyperbaric Test Centre offers specialist facilities for research, testing and evaluation of diving, submarine escape and other pressurised equipment. Finally, the Ship Integration Facility exactly replicates the equipment found on some of the UK’s Royal Navy fleet and provides an ideal platform for training and equipment testing – at significantly less expense than a real ship.