A small Scottish company has devised a revolutionary means of sending radio signals through ice and water which promises to be a major advance in Arctic exploration by scientists and climatologists - as well as having major implications for defence systems.

It would mean that, for the first time, submerged submarines could communicate with their bases through two-way radio systems.

Because radio signals can only be sent sent through water at very low frequencies the transmitting equipment has to be very large and cannot be fit on board a submarine.

Those behind the company, Wireless Fibre Systems Ltd, based at Livingston, believe that their discovery has significant commercial and military uses which could create up to 100 jobs in the next few years.

Ironically, one of the techniques in the innovation makes use of a 19th-century discovery by Samuel Morse, the pioneer inventor of Morse code. Brendan Hyland, the company's chief executive, was one of three entrepreneurs behind Kymata Ltd, an optoelectronics firm which started in 1998 and was sold in 2001 for about £300million.

His latest company has developed a means of sending two-way radio signals through water. At present, radio messages can only be sent from naval headquarters to submarines. Two-way conversations are only possible if the boat is on the surface or near large seabed aerials connected to a land base by cable, which the Russians and Americans are believed to have installed at strategic points.

For similar reasons, companies which need to communicate with undersea installations, such as oil and gas firms, also use cables.

Mr Hyland believes that the major commercial application of his company's new technology is in communicating with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).

“What we have done is to develop a technique which actually dates back to the 1840s when it was first recognised by Samuel Morse as a way to send a radio signal through water,” Mr Hyland said.

The company has adapted Morse's discovery and proven that it can be used to send radio signals through ice and water. Wireless Fibre Systems has teamed up with Kongsberg Maritime of Norway, a supplier of underwater sensory technology, in a €1.8million (£1.53million) two-year project to build a demonstration system for communicating through Arctic ice.

Mr Hyland said the equipment is aimed at showing that, from the ice surface it is possible to locate a AUV thousands of feet below on the seabed, to send and receive data to and from it, and even to recharge its batteries.

He added: “This project reinforces Europe's position as a technological and commercial leader in the field of marine engineering, offshore operations, and telecommunications. We think that across the environmental, oil and gas, and military applications, there is a market there worth several billions of dollars.”

Times Recommends

• The playboy and the Tory party leader
• Bin Laden's family tree is impenetrable jungle
• Paul McCartney