Bedford, Mass.
October 16, 2007

Sionex Corporation, a company producing commercialized breakthrough chemical and biological sensors and sub-systems, today announced that it has been named by Smiths Detection as a partner for the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MOD) contract to develop advanced technology for future generation chemical agent detectors.

Smiths Detection, part of the global technology business Smiths Group, has been awarded a contract by the UK MOD to develop HiFAWS technology to protect military forces against current and emerging chemical warfare threats. The Contract, awarded to Smiths Detection against competition, should lead ultimately to the development of a new generation of small, low-cost detectors suited to a variety of applications.

Wes Davis, CEO of Sionex said: "The program awarded to Smiths Detection incorporates Sionex's commercially proven microDMx™ technology. This demonstrates the value of our technology to detect chemical threats at higher sensitivity and superior selectivity, which equates to saving the lives of armed force personnel in a battlefield environment."

Damian Tracey, Managing Director of Smiths Detection - Military, said: "This program offers the potential for a significant leap in capability for the MOD, by developing the technology for chemical agent detection. Of the new technologies in the field, Smiths Detection base considers that HiFAWS offers great potential to advance our world-leading core detection technology significantly."

In conjunction with Dstl, the MOD science and technology agency, Smiths Detection will manage a program to evaluate the most suitable approach to the use of the HiFAWS technology. The objective is to create a system capable of identifying a growing range of detectable materials, at higher sensitivities and with near zero false alarms, packaged in a form suitable for operational military use.