A scientific breakthrough in a Ministry of Defence research project could pave the way for a scanners that one day could see underground or through walls.

A team of scientists including experts at the MoD’s Porton Down labs have developed a new device that can detect tiny fluctuations in gravity.

The device revealed in a BBC Horizon documentary could one day also lead to sensors that are immune to jamming or stealth technology designed to beat conventional systems like radar.

The technology could also lead to new ways of navigating that would replace GPS satellites which are vulnerable to enemy attack, as well as having many civilian uses.

Neil Stansfield, of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, said the new quantum gravity detector works by using lasers to freeze atoms in position and then measuring how the tiny particles are affected by the gravitational pull of nearby objects.