MBDA has celebrated the 60th anniversary of its Stevenage site with the visit of The Duke of York. The purpose of his visit was to mark the occasion of MBDA’s Diamond Jubilee and meet the people and see the technology behind many of the UK Armed Forces advanced missile systems.

“MBDA is delighted to have such an esteemed visitor as His Royal Highness and especially to celebrate our 60th anniversary,” said Keith Garden, MBDA Deputy Managing Director UK. “Since the site opened in 1954 we have been fortunate to have Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visit in 1959 and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1974. The tour today has given MBDA the chance to highlight to the Duke both our contribution nationally to the UK armed forces and to the local community as an employer and a good corporate neighbour.”

The link between MBDA and its military customers is an enduring one and during the tour the Duke met some of the team who are working on the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy). This Anglo-French missile is to replace the Sea Skua anti-ship missile, which the Duke himself operated with during his Royal Navy flying service in the Lynx helicopter.

Engineering and developing the engineers of the future is critical to sustaining the country’s industrial competitiveness and MBDA’s national award winning apprentices and graduates were on hand to explain their role in encouraging youngsters to consider such a career.

Employees also talked about a variety of activities that have been undertaken with local schools and charitable organisations, and our strong links to Armed Services charities.

The visit concluded with The Duke delivering a short address to the gathered employees on his reflections on the visit and anniversary before unveiling a plaque that commemorated the Stevenage site’s Diamond Jubilee.

Melanie Foster, the Project Manager for the visit, commented: “I was really pleased His Royal Highness The Duke of York was able to visit our site here at Stevenage as part of our Diamond Jubilee celebrations. It was a proud moment to be able to present our site and highlight the achievements of our people and products during the last six decades.”