  We give an overview of the current status and scientific goals of VERITAS, a
proposed hexagonal array of seven 10 m aperture imaging Cherenkov telescopes.
The selected site is Montosa Canyon (1390 m a.s.l.) at the Whipple Observatory,
Arizona. Each telescope, of 12 m focal length, will initially be equipped with
a 499 element photomultiplier camera covering a 3.5 degree field of view. A
central station will initiate the readout of 500 MHz FADCs upon receipt of
multiple telescope triggers. The minimum detectable flux sensitivity will be
0.5% of the Crab Nebula flux at 200 GeV. Detailed simulations of the array's
performance are presented elsewhere at this meeting. VERITAS will operate
primarily as a gamma-ray observatory in the 50 GeV to 50 TeV range for the
study of active galaxies, supernova remnants, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts.
