DERA is the British military research department (kinda like DARPA - Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency - or whatever they are called these days - in the US). They're basically a government department, but in line with Thatcherite logic, are now bridging the public and private spheres.
Don't know much about their actual, history, though.
Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844 OpenPGP: 1024D/0517502B : DE5B 6EAA 28AC 57F7 58EF 9295 6A26 6A92 0517 502B