Catalogue description Admiralty: Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment and predecessors: Records

The Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment originated in an Experimental Department set up in 1917 at HM Signal School, Portsmouth, to coordinate research work undertaken since 1896 on the Torpedo School ships HMS Defiance and HMS Vernon. In 1941 the Experimental Department became the Admiralty Signal Establishment which, like its predecessors, was largely concerned with communications. However, technological advances during the Second World War necessitated an increase in related fields of research, and in 1948 these were brought under one body, the Admiralty Signal and Radar Establishment at Portsmouth. In 1959 it was decided that missile technology justified an extension of its scope, and on being amalgamated with the Admiralty Gunnery Establishment (AGE) it received the title of Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment (ASWE). It is responsible for various aspects of research, development, design and trial of equipment, devices and techniques in the fields of communications, radar missile control, and electronic counter-measures and in related fields.

In 1971 the Admiralty Compass Observatory was absorbed into ASWE as its Navigation Division, and in 1984 the Establishment was amalgamated with Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE) and Admiralty Marine Technology Establishment (AMTE) to form the Admiralty Research Establishment (ARE).