DSDA Kineton

[Bruce Everiss]

Defence Storage and Distribution Agency
The largest ammunition dump in western Europe.

• Vast 2500 acre (10.1 km2) complex.
• 200 widely dispersed buildings.
• 21 miles (33.8km) of railway track.
• 22 miles (35.4km) perimeter fence.
• 300 military and civilian personnel.
Aerial view: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=52.1539251&lo ... =0&m=a&v=2

Nuclear weapon convoy information: http://www.nukewatch.org.uk/changes.php

It is also home to the Army School of Ammunition including the new multi-million pound Felix (named after bomb squad mascots) Centre for training Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) engineers where courses are given in Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) using robot search equipment on a mock-up urban street to provide realistic scenarios.


Also there are the V bomber nuclear bomb stores at Gaydon: http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/g/gaydon/index.html

[Bruce Everiss]

On the aerial view you can see one railway line go into a huge long building. This is rumoured to be a lift that takes whole trains deep underground so they can travel miles in all directions to widely spread munition stores.

The pyramids on the surface are there to deflect nuclear blasts. The whole site is designed to keep working after it has been nuked.

I asked one worker there a few years ago what it was like having a nuclear bomb on his forklift truck. He said that they were all crated up so it was just another wooden box to him.

[Bruce Everiss]

From a now deleted website:

"DSDA Kineton is the largest and most modern ammunition compound in Western Europe. Its role is to receive, store, processes, issue and distribute explosive and non-explosive munitions and materiel to UK Armed Forces worldwide. The facilities include 58 Standard Explosives Storehouses (SESH) and 185 Explosive Storehouses (ESH), known as igloos, spread over the Edgehill and Marlborough Sub-depots, operating a road and rail transfers. Additionally, the site operates 14 ammunition processing buildings for the repair and periodic maintenance of munitions from manufacture, in stock, and returned from units and other depots. DSDA Kineton is also responsible for managing the Agency’s 6 Munitions Compounds located around the country, monitoring the service provided to DSDA customers ensuring the munitions support on a geographical basis."

I found this on a trainspotters website that was also censored: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=15781

Photographs (over 90) and plans of another Defence Munitions site (Dean Hill) give a good idea what Kineton must be like, except that Kineton is many times bigger: http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/site ... dex2.shtml

Warwickshire Weapons Inspectors, a protest group, object to depleted uranium being stored there: http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/news ... .727125.jp

Good photographs of the base here: http://tony-crowe.fotopic.net/c881931.html

[Bruce Everiss]

Book "The Invisible Force": http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uyTG ... #PPA146,M1 Describes the underground road system at Kineton.

DSDA annual report and accounts (they are a limited company) with lots of photographs: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/do ... 6/0586.pdf

Interesting DSDA fact: http://www.questonline.co.uk/topics/mod ... gency_dsda

"it stores one-third of a million cubic metres of explosives "

From the House of Commons: http://www.robertkey.com/dean-hill-letters.htm

"There are two other Defence Munitions Depots involved. Glendouglas on Loch Long has a deep water jetty and far more processing facilities than Dean Hill. Kineton is fifty times as big as Dean Hill and has huge potential for further development. Between the three depots, there is 25% excess capacity for the 1.5 million tonnes of high explosives to be stored. Dean Hill represents just 5% of that capacity."

[Bruce Everiss]

Review of book about bomb disposal during Northern Ireland troubles: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/200 ... ry5039.asp
"Deep in the English countryside at Kineton in Warwickshire, the British army's trainees learn to dismantle bombs in replica Irish scenarios, including a farm complex, a housing estate, a pub, a hotel, a railway station and a bus depot. The streets have pillar boxes and lampposts just like home and, according to Ryder, the fake fittings are “every bit as ramshackle as the real thing'‘."

Repacking Javelin anti tank missiles: http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D460CA73 ... _nov06.pdf

"Each Javelin was in its
own container, supported
at each end by a plastic lug.
Investigation had shown
that some of the lugs could
buckle or crack and it was
decided that those affected
needed to be replaced. The
figures were daunting,
2,899 missiles on 489
pallets needed to be
repacked onto new pallets,
with around 600 missiles
needing repacking into
new containers."

[Bruce Everiss]

photo http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/410469

"All of this square is within restricted MoD land and not accessible to the public. The array of sheds just left of centre are part of the storage facilities on this site. For now this distant view from the Edge Hill escarpment is probably about the only visibility we will get without MoD assistance."

photo http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/410466

"All of this square is within restricted MoD land and not accessible to the public. The red roofed buildings are part of the storage facilities on this site. For now this distant view from the Edge Hill escarpment is probably about the only visibility we will get without MoD assistance."

[Bruce Everiss]

I have now collated some of this into a Knol: http://knol.google.com/k/bruce-everiss/ ... ln1pbt/35#

DSDA (Defence Storage and Distribution Agency) Kineton (formerly CAD Kineton) is an arms depot in rural Warwickshire, on and under the site of the Civil War battle of Edge Hill. Its role is to receive, store, processes, issue and distribute explosive and non-explosive munitions and materiel to UK Armed Forces worldwide.The nearest towns are Leamington Spa and Stratford on Avon. It was created during World War 2 and has been greatly expanded and modified since.

DSDA Kineton is one of the most secret places in Britain so information only slips out by mistake, as part of another issue or in parlimentary questions. DSDA, who manage the site, are a limited company and as such issue an annual report which gives a small glimpse of what is going on.

The site has its own railway line for moving munitions in and out. Also it has a very extensive sidings system which would be needed in case of a big war for handling the sheer volumes of munitions necessary. In peacetime these sidings are rented out to railway companies for storing rolling stock. The railway system continues underneath the Warwick countryside so that trains can be loaded and unloaded directly into bunkers. Thus minimising work and keeping them safe from both observation and attack. There is also an extensive underground road system.

Another British arms depot, Dean Hill, was closed. This was much smaller representing just 5% of the UK capacity. However since its closure plans and photographs have been released which show exactly how it worked. If you scale these up 50 times you get some idea of what DSDA Kineton is.

Some facts about DSDA Kineton:
Vast 2500 acre (10.1 km2) complex.
200 widely dispersed buildings.
21 miles (33.8km) of railway track.
22 miles (35.4km) perimeter fence.
300 military and civilian personnel.
58 undergroundStandard Explosives Storehouses (SESH)
185 underground Explosive Storehouses (ESH)
14 ammunition processing buildings

To give some a ballpark figure about the volumes of munitions stored we have some figures one is "it stores one-third of a million cubic metres of explosives" another is that it is the largest store for the "1.5 million tonnes of high explosives" that the UK keeps stored. Obviously these are official figures so the reality could be even bigger.

It is also home to the Army School of Ammunition including the new multi-million pound Felix (named after bomb squad mascots) Centre for training Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) engineers where courses are given in Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) using robot search equipment on a mock-up urban street to provide realistic scenarios.

[Bruce Everiss]

The Felix Centre on Google sightseeing: http://googlesightseeing.com/2008/08/07 ... ent-201626

[Bruce Everiss]

Hardened ammunition storage bunkers at DSDA Kineton

[Bruce Everiss]

DSDA 2008 Annual Report http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/do ... 8/0818.pdf Lots of pictures!

Located throughout the UK and
Northern Germany DSDA manages
a range of storage, processing and
distribution tasks on behalf of its
customers in defence and industry.
Our main customer base are the
Integrated Project Teams (IPTs)
that manage the introduction of
defence materiels to the MoD.
DSDA is a key enabler within the
Defence Equipment and Support
(DE&S) organisation and our
ability to manage this partnership
between our customers and the
Armed Forces is unique. DSDA is
strategically placed at the centre
of the Defence Supply Chain and
has evolved to provide a unique
portfolio of services that are
specifically tailored to the Defence
supply industry.
This is why DSDA is the preferred
supplier to some of the biggest
names in defence.