The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE) was a British defence research unit on Chobham Lane,

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...

in Surrey. It was responsible for many innovations in armoured vehicle design, including ceramic

Chobham armour Chobham armour is the informal name of a composite armour developed in the 1960s at the British tank research centre on Chobham Common, Surrey. The name has since become the common generic term for composite ceramic vehicle armour. Other name ...

History

The Admiralty's

Landships Committee The Landship Committee was a small British committee formed during the World War I, First World War to develop armoured fighting vehicles for use on the Western Front (WWI), Western Front. The eventual outcome was the creation of what is now call ...

was created in 1915 to oversee the development of what would become known as

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

s. In the same year, the Design Department was set up at the

Royal Arsenal The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

. The Tank and Tracked Transport Experiment Establishment (TTTEE) was formed at

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

in 1925, which in turn spawned the Mechanical Warfare Experimental Establishment (MWEE) in 1928. The MWEE was renamed the Mechanisation Experimental Establishment (MEE) in 1934 and in 1940 the MEE merged with elements of the Design Department at Woolwich to form the

Department of Tank Design Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. In 1942 the DTD at Farnborough spawned the Fighting Vehicles Proving Establishment (FVPE), which moved to a new purpose-built camp in Chertsey on the site of the former RAF Chobham that was convenient for testing tanks on Chobham Heath. The Wheeled Vehicles Experimental Establishment (WVEE) was also formed out of the DTD in that year, and moved to Chertsey in 1943. In 1946 the DTD merged with WVEE to form the Fighting Vehicle Design Department (FVDD) at Chertsey alongside the FVPE. The FVDD was renamed the Fighting Vehicle Design Establishment (FVDE) in 1948. Four years later the FVPE and FVDE merged to create the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE). FVRDE and the

Military Experimental Engineering Establishment The Military Engineering Experimental Establishment (MEXE) was a British defence research unit. It was formed from the Experimental Bridging Establishment in 1946 and was amalgamated with the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establ ...

(MEXE) at

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

amalgamated in 1970 to form the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE). In 1984-5 Chertsey became the Vehicles Department of the

Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

(RARDE) as the MVEE and the

Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment, usually known for brevity as ''PERME'', operated at two sites: * Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills, known from 1977 as ''PERME Waltham Abbey'' * Rocket Propulsion Establishment established at ...

(PERME) based at

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian, between the River Lea in the west and E ...

and Westcott, merged with RARDE

Fort Halstead Fort Halstead was a research site of Dstl, an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. It is situated on the crest of the Kentish North Downs, overlooking the town of Sevenoaks, southeast of London. Originally constructed in 1892 as part ...

. In the wake of the ending of the Cold War, RARDE merged with other research establishments in April 1991 to form the

Defence Research Agency The Defence Research Agency (DRA) was an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) from April 1991 until April 1995. At the time, the DRA was Britain's largest science and technology organisation. In April 1995, the DRA was combined wi ...

(DRA), 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 Nort ...

of the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. In turn, DRA became a division of the

Defence Evaluation and Research Agency The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) was a part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1995 and 2 July 2001. At the time it was the United Kingdom's largest science and technology organisation. It was regarded by its official hi ...

(DERA) in 1995. The Chertsey and Christchurch sites were among those allocated to Qinetiq when DERA was broken up in 2001 with the intention that Qinetiq would be privatised, which happened in 2006. Technologies such as electric armour were retained within the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The research staff at Chertsey were joined by the Vehicles Branch of the

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...

(REME) in 1972, which became the Vehicles and Weapons Branch in 1982, the Army Technical Support Agency (ATSA) in 1995, and finally the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) Chertsey from 2000 until 2005. The DLO and its predecessors were responsible for the support and testing of all British Army vehicles. During the 1980s, vehicle testing was carried out by a sub-contracted company who provided drivers to test a range of military vehicles ascertaining a range of requirements from their ability to move over rough terrain through to their tipping point. Qinetiq sold the 315 acre Chertsey site to Crest Nicholson and Morley Fund Management (part of

CGNU Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

) for redevelopment in November 2003. They submitted a plan for up to 113,434 square metres of development in 2005, which was later reduced. It now forms the

backlot A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction. Uses Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...

Longcross Studios Longcross Film Studios is a film and television production facility in Longcross, Surrey, approximately west of central London. Built on the site of the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment, the studio began operations in 2006. The stu ...

and has plans for redevelopment as residential.

References

{{coord , 51, 22, 54, N, 0, 35, 33, W, type:landmark_region:GB-SRY, display=title Military research establishments of the United Kingdom Science and technology in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Surrey Qinetiq Research institutes in Surrey