News story

Dstl success in Vice Chief of the Defence Staff awards

Experts from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) have been recognised with one individual award and one team award.

Aircraft in a hangar

The Vice Chief of the Defence Staff (VCDS) Commendation Awards are conferred twice a year, in tandem with the state honours, to individuals and teams who have performed exemplary service to the Ministry of Defence.

Victoria Cox received an individual Commendation for her outstanding performance in delivering statistical data analysis to the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling that allowed the UK Government to make decisions about COVID-19 and save lives.

The members of the Combat Air Simulation Team, Dave Harrhy, Mark Everett, Graham Panter, and Kieran Evans, were awarded a VCDS Commendation for their dedicated development and operation of the CUTLASS Human-in-the-Loop Capability which, over the last 18 years, has allowed air stakeholders to understand mission effectiveness, survivability and interoperability of the UK’s current and future Combat Air platforms. Furthermore their ingenuity and initiative has facilitated the development of an off-site air combat simulation facility, SABRE, which will support the front line at RAF MARHAM.

Dstl Chief Executive, Dr Paul Hollinshead, said:

These awards demonstrate the invaluable contribution of Defence research to current and future national security, whether protecting the health of the nation or keeping people safe from threats. I am immensely proud of the impact Dstl’s work has for our customers and offer my thanks and appreciation to all the recipients.

Published 20 June 2022