CAP Scientific

CAP Scientific was formed in 1979 by four colleagues who had previously worked in Scicon, a BP subsidiary. Seeking to start a specialist software company for defence applications in the United Kingdom, they approached CAP-CPP, a commercial software house, to back a start-up operation.

By 1985, CAP Scientific had established significant work in several areas. It had a strong naval business based on supporting the Admiralty Research Establishment. This Maritime Technology business applied the technologies fostered in research contracts on major development programmes. CAP worked with Vosper Thornycroft Controls to develop machinery control and surveillance systems for the Royal Navy's new generation ships and submarines.

An associated Naval Command Systems business had built a strong Action Information Organisation design team, working with both surface and submarine fleets, and a Land Air Systems business also took research and development contracts and was prime contractor for the British Army's Brigade and Battlegroup Trainer (BBGT). The non-defence scientific sector was addressed by setting a Scientific Systems business with expertise in energy generation and conservation. In that year, CAP Scientific established the Centre for Operational Research and Defence Analysis (CORDA) as an independent unit to provide impartial assistance for investment appraisal.

At that time military computer systems were purpose-built by major contractors, and CAP Scientific's strategy was to form joint ventures with companies which had market access but could not afford the investment to move into the new technology of microprocessors and distributed systems.

The Falklands War prompted a further competition in British naval equipment supply when an analysis of the loss of HMS Sheffield showed that improvements were necessary in surface ship combat systems. A contract for the command system for the navy's new Type 23 frigates was cancelled and put out to competition, and after a long campaign was awarded to the CAP and Gresham consortium, teamed with Racal Electronics. The consortium developed the architecture of SMCS to create a derivative distributed system known internally as Surface-Ship Command System (SSCS). By now Gresham-Lion was under Dowty ownership and CAP Group had merged with the French company SEMA-METRA SA to form Sema Group plc.

The Type 23 command system proved to be a step too far for Sema Scientific, as it was now called. The enormous fixed-price contract overran, causing problems for both Sema and Dowty. Dowty was taken over by TI Group, who sold their interests in Dowty-Sema back to Sema Group for £1. Sema Group invited British Aerospace in as a co-investor in the business, and the activities which once formed CAP Scientific, Gresham-CAP and YARD, together with some BAe interests were merged in 1991 into a new entity, BAeSEMA. Ultimately, BAe purchased Sema Group's interest in BAeSEMA. Ironically, with the BAe/Marconi Electronic Systems merger to form BAE Systems in 1999, the CAP Scientific business found itself under the same parent as its erstwhile competitor Ferranti.