Dates: 1970 -

The Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) was a scientific research establishment within the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Procurement Agency of the United Kingdom, located primarily at Malvern in Worcestershire. It was formed in the 1970s in an amalgamation of earlier research establishments including the Royal Radar Establishment (RRE). In 1979 it merged with the Services Electronic Research Laboratory (SERL) formerly at Baldock and the Services Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) formerly at Christchurch. There were out-stations at the ex-RAF airfields at Defford and Pershore.

In April 1991 RSRE amalgamated with other defence research establishments to form the Defence Research Agency, which in April 1995 amalgamated with more organisations to form the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. In June 2001 this became independent of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with approximately two thirds being incorporated into a commercial company, QinetiQ, owned by the MoD and the remainder into the fully government owned laboratory, DSTL. In 2003, the Carlyle Group bought a private equity stake (~30%) in QinetiQ.

Some of the most important technologies developed from work at RSRE are radar, thermal imaging, liquid crystal displays and speech synthesis.

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