By Sangeeta Saxena
Manchester. 19 November 2023. After a four years break due to the pandemic, six journalists from India are all set to visit MBDA facilities in UK and France. We are in Manchester, which is our first halt, to visit the Bolton facility .Two of us reached from London and the rest arrived from India this morning. And ofcourse we are accompanied by our hosts , officials from MBDA India & UK. England is in the Christmas mood and we Indians have also got engulfed in it.
MBDA, an accelerator of innovation, is the only European group able to design and manufacture complex weapons that meet the full range of current and future operational requirements of the three armed forces (land, sea and air). In the UK, MBDA’s history dates back to the 1940s, when one of its predecessors, Bolton-based De Havilland, was the first British manufacturer to supply an infrared air-to-air missile in service with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
Today, MBDA partners with the UK Ministry of Defense on many major programs currently run by the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. This work ensures that hundreds of millions of pounds will be injected into supply chains, benefiting hundreds of UK SMEs. Overall, this helps secure top technical skills and jobs in the UK aerospace and defense sector.
MBDA employs nearly 5,000 people across the UK, including hundreds of apprentices and graduates, all pushing the boundaries of science, technology and engineering to develop cutting-edge solutions to protect the people protecting the nation.
The Bolton site is MBDA’s recently developed state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. Opened in the summer of 2017, following a move from nearby Lostock, MBDA invested upwards of £50 million into the development of the ‘future proof’ new site. In addition the
MBDA and its predecessor organisations have been based in Lancashire for more than 80 years. Originally, in Lostock, building propellers aircraft then, after WWII expanding into the manufacture of complex machined components.
When development started on guided weapons in 1951, Lostock became the production factory for Firestreak, a first-generation air-to-air missile, and has remained a manufacturing hub and a major production centre for each succeeding generation of missile.
Today, more than 1000 staff work at the site producing Meteor, ASRAAM, CAMM, Sea Venom, Sea Ceptor and Brimstone missiles and it is MBDA’s centre of excellence for manufacturing.
The factory supports hundreds of jobs in Bolton, demonstrating how a strong UK defense industry is central to UK’s national prosperity. MBDA in Bolton is helping keeping UK safe while creating highly skilled jobs and opportunities, demonstrating it’s commitment to the people of Bolton and the North West.
