A new engineering facility in Newburn has been officially opened today (15th September) by Newcastle North MP, Catherine McKinnell. 

The facility which is situated at the Quadrant on Newburn Riverside, is a new location for 50 specialist engineers involved in the design, upgrade and support of armoured fighting vehicles.

The BAE Systems site has both office areas and an engineering development facility to sustain and progress an unique UK engineering capability –  the design knowledge of combat engineer vehicles, main battle tanks and bridging systems.

The engineering development facility contains the test rigs required to develop and upgrade military vehicles including a fully immersive 3D visualisation system. This enables the technology upgrades to be demonstrated to the customer as part of a rapid prototyping facility to mitigate risk in the programme, as well as to speed up the delivery of upgrades to the front line.

As well as seeing at first-hand a virtual Challenger 2 main battle tank in 3D, Catherine had the opportunity to test-drive a Challenger 2 on a simulator as well as virtually control a Terrier Combat Engineer Vehicle.

Catherine McKinnell commented: ‘BAE Systems has a long and proud history in Newcastle and I am pleased that, with this fantastic new facility, we will retain some of the specialist engineers and their high level skills in our city.

‘It is positive that BAE Systems is retaining a presence, and investing in, Newcastle in this way.’

David Bond, Managing Director for Combat Vehicles (UK) added: ‘Our retention of key engineering skills, assets and capabilities in the North East is pivotal in our strategy to be the leading provider of support in armoured fighting vehicles and bridging systems to the British Army.’

With design knowledge of over 90% of the British Army’s Armoured Fighting fleet, the Newburn employees are focussed on winning UK Ministry of Defence upgrade programmes for both the Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank and Military Bridging systems.