Celsius: EU grants SEK 30 million for multi-sensor system

The EU grants SEK 30 million for the development of a multi-sensor system for humanitarian mine-clearing The EU Commission in Brussels has made available approximately SEK 30 million to a consortium led by Celsius in order to carry out a project which includes the development of a multi-sensor system for humanitarian mine-clearance. This project has been selected in the face of stiff competition and is an acknowledgement of the Celsius-led consortium's expertise in the field of mine-clearing. The non-profit organisation Norsk Folkehjelp is also a member of the consortium. The project is based on a metal detector which is operated together with a radar which scans under the ground. The information detected is processed instantaneously. The detector detects an object and the radar reports whether or not it is a mine. - This EU decision is an acknowledgement of the Celsius-led group's expertise and concepts in the mine-clearing sector. This concept shall be developed and refined. It is obviously very pleasing that we can now be part of a humanitarian effort and we are prepared to make further efforts in this field, comments Celsius President and CEO, Lars G. Josefsson. The group of companies and research and non-profit organisations which Celsius has formed, includes CelsiusTech Electronics, the Schiebel company in Austria which makes hand-held land mine detectors, SINTEF a Norwegian research and development institute, the Research Institute of the Swedish Armed Forces, SWEDEC, the total defence and mine-clearing centre, NTUA the Technical University in Athens with its researchers and specialists, ATM which is a Swedish consultant company and the non-profit organisation Norsk Folkehjelp. 2 (2) Celsius has the know-how to produce sensors which localise mines in the ground and also to carry out mechanical mine-clearing. Research and development have been carried out for a number of years in several projects. The world has an enormous mine problem and more than 100 million mines have been laid throughout the world during conflicts and wars and with the present rate of mine-clearing, which is a difficult and time-consuming job, they will take several hundred years to clear away. Every year, approximately 25 000 people, mainly children, are killed by discharging mines. There is in other words, an enormous need for humanitarian mine-clearing. Many talk about what should be done but the difficulty has been to proceed from words to actions. The EU now wishes to do something about this and the Commission has therefore turned to European industries in the search for concrete and feasible technical concepts to carry out humanitarian mine detection. Celsius formed a group around a concept which has been named P.I.C.E. which stands for PinPointing, Identification, Clearance and Ensurance. The members of the group co-operated to produce the proposal which was presented and approved and which shall now be further developed. The proposal was accepted by EU despite stiff competition in the form of a number of proposals involving large parts of the European defence industry and the acceptance of the Celsius led group proposal is a very high recommendation. The Celsius Group has unique expertise regarding mine-clearing. The Bofors Weapon Systems business unit recently demonstrated its new version of the Mine-Guzzler which is a vehicle for humanitarian, mechanical mine-clearing. The Celsius Group is also a leading supplier of various systems for the clearance of naval mines. For further information, please contact Celsius Group President and CEO, Lars G. Josefsson, telephone +46 8 463 00 00, Jan Cederlund, Celsius Marketing, telephone +46 8 463 00 07 or the Celsius Head of Corporate Communications, Kjell Göthe, telephone +46 8 463 00 19 or +46 70 583 95 44. Celsius is an advanced-technology international industrial group, with domestic markets in the Nordic countries, the U.S.A. and Australia. Firmly founded on a comprehensive joint technological base, operations focus primarily on three priority areas: Defence, Commercial Aviation Services and Business Development, which currently comprises Materials technology, Explosives andIinfomatics. With annual sales of approximately SEK 12 billion, the Celsius Group numbers some 11,000 employees.