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Royal Ordnance was the state-run arms manufacturer in the United Kingdom which was privatised in 1984 and sold off by the government to British Aerospace (BAe) in 1987. Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or, especially in India, disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership and/or transferring the management of a service or activity from the government to the private sector. ...
1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
British Aerospace (BAe) was a UK aircraft manufacturer, now part of BAE Systems. ...
1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Royal Ordnance Factories (abbreviated ROFs) manufactured explosives, ammunition, small arms including the Lee-Enfield rifle, guns and military vehicles such as tanks. This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ...
Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ...
The term small arms describes any weapon that a person can easily transport and fire. ...
Lee-Enfield No4 Mk1 with bayonet, scabbard attached The Lee-Enfield was the British armys standard bolt action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle from 1895 until 1956. ...
A rifle is any long gun which has a rifled barrel. ...
A small cast-iron cannon on a carriage A cannon is any large tubular firearm designed to fire a heavy projectile over a considerable distance. ...
Lineage Royal Ordnance can trace its history back to 1560 with the founding of the Royal Gunpowder Factory (RGPF) at Waltham Abbey. This was linked to the Royal Small Arms Factory at RSAF Enfield Lock and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. All were based near London—but not too close in case of explosion. The title of Royal Arsenal was introduced in 1805 to encompass the Royal Laboratories, Royal Gun Factory, and the Royal Carriage, which were originally separate and based in Greenwich. Events February 27 - The Treaty of Berhick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland The first tulip bulb was brought from Turkey to the Netherlands. ...
Location within the British Isles Waltham Abbey is a market town of about 20,400 people in the west of the county of Essex, in the East of England region. ...
The RSAF at Enfield was closed in 1987 and the majority of the site is now covered by a large housing development. ...
The London Borough of Enfield is the most northerly London borough. ...
Canal locks in England. ...
The Royal Arsenal originally known as the Woolwich Arsenal was an armaments manufacturing facility on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London. ...
Woolwich (pronounced Woolitch) is a town in south-east London, England in the London Borough of Greenwich, on the south side of the River Thames, though the tiny exclave of North Woolwich (which is now part of the London Borough of Newham) is on the north side of the river. ...
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1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
Greenwich (pronounced gren-itch , or by the locals) is a town, now part of the south eastern urban sprawl of London, on the south bank of the river Thames in the London Borough of Greenwich. ...
In 1927 these Royal Factories were transferred within the War Office from the Ministry of Munitions to the Department of the Master-General of the Ordnance. 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The War Office was a government agency in both the United Kingdom and the United States. ...
Department of the Master-General of the Ordnance Department within the British War Office. ...
As World War II loomed, a further 40 ROFs were built by the Ministry of Supply, in the late 1930s into the 1940s, employing around 300,000 personnel. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons—the atom bomb being the ultimate. ...
Royal Ordnance Factories (ROFs) was the collective name of the UK governments munitions factories in and after World War II. Until privatisation in 1987 they were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply and later the Ministry of Defence. ...
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supplying of equipment to the British armed forces. ...
// Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ...
// Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ...
Privatisation On 2nd January 1984, "Vesting day", the twelve ROFs that still remained open, plus the Waltham Abbey South site and three Agency Factories, became a UK Government-owned company: Royal Ordnance PLC. Its headquarters was moved to ROF Chorley, Lancashire and its Registered Office was located in London. 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The initials plc after a UK or Irish company name indicate that it is a public limited company, a type of limited company whose shares may be offered for sale to the public. ...
Lancashire (archaically, the County of Lancaster) is a county palatine of England, lying on the Irish Sea. ...
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Consolidation into BAE Systems Royal Ordnance PLC was sold in 1987 to British Aerospace as Royal Ordnance Defence (ROD) for 180 million pounds. At the time, it had 16 factories and some 19,000 personnel were employed. Since then, it has closed and sold its sites at Waltham Abbey South, Enfield, ROF Patricroft, RO Summerfield and RO Bishopton. However, BAe ROD bought BMARC and Poudrieres Reunies de Belgique (PRB) from the administrators of the failed Astra Holdings; and later Muiden Chemie. In 1991 ROD also bought the small arms ammunition interests of Heckler and Koch; this group was sold in 2002 to Heckler and Koch Beteiligungs GmbH. The pound sterling, which strictly speaking refers to basic currency unit of sterling, now the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom (UK). ...
BMARC (British Manufacture and Research Company) was a UK-based firm designing and producing defence products, particularly naval anti-aircraft cannon. ...
1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Heckler und Koch GmbH (H&K) is a German weapons manufacturing company famous for various series of small firearms, notably the MP5 submachine gun, the MP7 personal defense weapon and the G3 and G36 assault rifles. ...
2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH) is a type of business structure in Germany, similar to limited liability company in the United States. ...
In 1999 BAe bought the defence interests of GEC, at the same time changing its name from British Aerospace to BAE Systems. In 2004 BAE Systems acquired Alvis Vickers Ltd which merged with the ROD business and ex-GEC plants at Barrow-in-Furness and Leicester to form BAE Systems Land Systems. This organisation was further strengthened in 2005 when BAE Systems took over the US comapny United Defense Industries and added it to the business group. The General Electric Company plc or GEC was a UK company involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications and engineering. ...
BAE Systems is the worlds fourth largest defence contractor and a commercial aerospace products manufacturer. ...
Alvis Vickers logo Alvis Vickers Ltd was a defence company formed by the combination of Alvis plcs defence business with Vickers Defence Systems in 2002. ...
Barrow-in-Furness is a town in Cumbria, England. ...
Leicester (pronounced ) is the largest city in the English East Midlands, on the River Soar. ...
2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...
United Defense Industries (UDI) is a United States defense contractor which produces combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions. ...
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