Military researchers moving away from downtown London

Military researchers moving away from downtown London
By Bryan Mitchell, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, December 19, 2007

LONDON — The military’s chief research hub in Europe is moving its headquarters from central London to a British military site on the outskirts of the city, military officials said.

The Edison House, about a mile from the U.S. Embassy, will no longer be home to research centers for the Army, Air Force and Navy as well as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The expiration of the lease prompted the move.

All told, 12 separate government agencies are in the final stages of moving to Blenheim Crescent, a British Ministry of Defence site located near a former U.S. Navy installation, according to Air Force Col. Steven Pluntze, commander of the Air Force lab.

“It gives you a certain cachet because your business cards say London, but the scientists of the world do not care about your address. They care about your research,” he said.

Pluntze, who serves as the director of the Air Force research center, said the centers will maintain a smaller, former Navy facility in Mayfair within walking distance of the U.S. Embassy to host officials from outside the country.


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