MoD credits its scientists with taking the fight to IS

Ministry of Defence researchers helped guide the bombing campaign against the so-called Islamic State and were instrumental in protecting against cyberattacks at home, according to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s annual report.

In his foreword to the report, DSTL chief executive Jonathan Lyle highlighted the changing role of an institution set up a 100 years ago to counter the threat posed by the use of poisonous gas against British troops on the Western Front during the first world war.

He said that the laboratory’s expertise was now being used by the Royal Air Force following the decision to bomb the IS-controlled oil fields in Iraq that provide much of the terrorist group’s income.