The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has awarded a £17m contract to Kier Graham Defence Ltd to ready Bassingbourn Barracks for the relocation of the British Army’s Mission Training and Mobilisation Centre (MTMC)
The project will include the refurbishment of some of the existing buildings at Bassingbourn Barracks including accommodation blocks, social facilities, offices, classrooms and training areas.
The existing medical and dental centres will also be refurbished and two new training facilities will be constructed. This work contract will provide infrastructure that will allow MTMC to train effectively in one location.
The refurbishment work will allow the mission training and mobilisation centre to be fully operational at Bassingbourn Barracks, with up to 1,000 staff and troops on site at peak times.
The MTMC delivers crucial pre-deployment training for approximately 12,500 personnel every year and has recently trained a battlegroup heading out to Afghanistan on an operation. This operation sees British personnel training and advising their Afghan colleagues and providing protection and security.
Project Hercules
The works are part of ‘Project Hercules’ and follows on from the first phase of work to bring the Bassingbourn Barracks back into use by the British Army.
Project Hercules supports the MOD’s optimisation of the defence estate by co-locating capability and disposing of sites that the military no longer needs.
The first stage of the mission training and mobilisation centre move saw its Kent-based elements relocate to Bassingbourn in December 2018. Work under this contract will allow the relocation of the other elements of MTMC from Chilwell Barracks in the Midlands.
Gillian Naylor, DIO’s senior project manager, said: “This is a great example of how DIO supports our armed forces by providing the places they need to live, work, train and deploy on operations.”
Commander of MTMC, Colonel Neil Unsworth OBE, added: “I am delighted to see the contract award for the next phase of development here in Bassingbourn.
“The Armed Forces have long and proud linkages with the local community which we have already started to redevelop, and I look forward to seeing the growth of this in line with our development in Bassingbourn.”
“We’re extremely proud to continue our working relationship with DIO delivering crucial infrastructure at Bassingbourn Barracks to allow effective pre-deployment training in one location.
“This project builds on our extensive expertise in the defence sector, where we are currently on-site delivering new infrastructure to ready MOD Lyneham for the move of 5 Battalion REME as part of the Army Basing Programme,” added Mark Dady, managing director of Kier Regional Building Eastern.
