The Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) was an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or N ...

which reported to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's Ministry of Defence. It provided engineering, repair and re-manufacturing services to the British Armed Forces and also to the police and some local councils. ABRO traced its history back to the foundation of the Corps of Armourers in 1858.

History

On 1 April 1993, the Army's static workshops in Great Britain, previously under the control of the Equipment Support Organisation, were reorganised as the Army Base Repair Organisation. It comprised the headquarters at

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andove ...

, a contract repair branch and a network of base and district workshops. It employed 3,581 civilian workers and 219 military staff. Apart from the HQ at Andover, there were other major units at

Bovington Bovington Camp () is a British Army military base in Dorset, England. Together with Lulworth Camp it forms part of Bovington Garrison. The garrison is home to The Armour Centre and contains two barracks complexes and two forest and heathland tr ...

, Old Dalby, Leics, Catterick,

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, Donnington,

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

and

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-c ...

. Smaller sites were located at

Bicester Bicester ( ) is a historical market towngarden town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an eco town at North-East Bicester and self-build village aGraven Hill Its loca ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Sennybridge Sennybridge ( cy, Pontsenni) is a village in the historic county of Brecknockshire, Wales, now within the unitary authority area of Powys, situated some from Cardiff and from Swansea. It lies west of Brecon on the A40 trunk road to Llandov ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. On 1 April 2002, the Army Base Repair Organisation was established as a

trading fund A trading fund is an executive agency, government department or often simply a part of a department, that enables the department to handle its own revenues and expenses separately from overall government finances and more like a business, as opposed ...

under the name ABRO. Its services included: * Maintenance, repair and overhaul * Complex service and repair * Assembly, integration and test * Calibration * Diagnostics *

Fleet management Fleet management is the management of: * Commercial motor vehicles such as cars, vans, trucks, specialist vehicles (such as mobile construction machinery), forklifts, and trailers * Private vehicles used for work purposes (the 'grey fleet') * Av ...

* Mobile support teams * Obsolescence management * Re-manufacture * Workshop management ABRO's annual turnover was typically in excess of £147 million and each year carried out work on over 1,000 product lines of military and commercial vehicles and equipment, as well as over 55,000

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with '' a priori''.) C ...

repair tasks. On 22 May 2007, it was announced by the

Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support The Minister of State for Defence Procurement is, as a Minister of State, a mid-level defence minister in the Ministry of Defence of the British Government. The current incumbent of the post, Conservative MP Alex Chalk, was appointed in October 202 ...

Lord Drayson Paul Rudd Drayson, Baron Drayson (born 5 March 1960), is a British businessman, amateur racing driver and Labour politician. He was Minister of Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills until May 2010, where he replaced I ...

, that ABRO would be merged with DARA, the Defence Aviation Repair Agency to become the Defence Support Group with effect from 1 April 2008.

References

External links

Official ABRO site
{{St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government History of the British Army Military in Hampshire Defence agencies of the United Kingdom Organisations based in Hampshire Test Valley St Athan