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Fort Halstead is 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. Originally constructed in 1892 as one of a ring of fortresses around London, Fort Halstead was to be manned by volunteers in the event of a crisis.
The base went on to become home to the Ministry of Supply, from which it became the headquarters of the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE).
History of RARDE
Two departments, the "Research Department" and the "Design Department", were established in 1922 at Woolwich Arsenal. During the Second World War, the Design Department moved to Fort Halstead, followed by the Research Department. It is believed that Britain's development of the atomic bomb, hidden under the name High Explosive Research ("HER") was initially based at Fort Halstead, where the first atomic bomb was developed under the directorship of William George Penney, who had been appointed Chief Superintendent Armament Research ("CSAR", called "Caesar") by C. P. Snow. Operation Hurricane saw the bomb conveyed by frigate to Australia and successfully exploded in the Montebello Islands. In 1950, it is thought that the "HER" research was moved to a new site at Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston in Berkshire.
In 1955, the two departments were merged to give the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), which was granted the title "Royal" in February 1962. In the 1980s, RARDE was amalgamated with the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE) - formerly the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE) - with sites at Chertsey and Christchurch, and the Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment based at Waltham Abbey and Westcott.
Following the December 1988 Lockerbie bombing, forensic experts from RARDE's explosives laboratory examined material recovered from the crash scene, and subsequently testified as expert witnesses at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial.
Evolution to DERA
On 1 April 1991, the Defence Research Agency (DRA) was set up by bringing together Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE), Admiralty Research Establishment (ARE), RARDE, and the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE). It was an executive Agency of the Ministry of Defence. Four years later, when DRA was itself merged to form the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), the forensic explosives laboratory came under media and scientific scrutiny. In 1996, amid allegations that contaminated equipment had been used in the testing of forensic evidence, an inquiry was set up under Professor Brian Caddy of Strathclyde University to investigate the laboratory's alleged shortcomings.
Following the split of DERA in 2001, the Fort Halstead site was gifted to QinetiQ who leased part of the site back to Dstl. Its most recent principal functions have been research and forensic analysis into explosives, and the site's explosives laboratory was again used in the investigation following the attempted 21 July 2005 London bombings. The facility has been the largest employer in the Sevenoaks district, with 1,300 personnel working on the site in 2000.
In March 2006, QinetiQ sold the Fort Halstead site to the international property company, Hines, and to Deutsche Bank for an undisclosed sum.
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