In 1959, Portland's
Admiralty Gunnery Establishment was transferred to
Portsdown Hill, allowing the research at Portland to focus on anti-submarine research and underwater weapons. The Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment was formed in 1959 by the transfer of a number of Admiralty research establishments to Portland, including: • the
Underwater Launching Establishment at
Bournemouth • the Torpedo Experimental Establishment at
Greenock • the Underwater Countermeasures and Weapons Establishment at
Havant The Underwater Detection Establishment at Portland was then itself amalgamated into the AUWE the following year. This amalgamation saw all research into underwater weapons and detection systems concentrated at Portland by 1960, with two primary sites forming the AUWE: "AUWE (North)" and "AUWE (South)". The North site, located at
Portland's Naval Base, was formerly the HM Underwater Detection Establishment; the South site, located at
Southwell, was formerly the Admiralty Gunnery Establishment. The Torpedo Experimental Establishment took over the facilities and staff of the former Royal Naval Torpedo Depot
Weymouth at
Bincleaves (the closure of which coincided with the Establishment's move from Scotland); this site became known as AUWE(B). The work carried out at Portland had the highest security classification during the
Cold War. In 1961, the two establishments were the centre of worldwide attention, after the discovery of espionage infiltration. This became infamously known as the
Portland spy ring, a Soviet spy ring that operated in England from the late 1950s until 1961 when the core of the network were arrested by the British security services. In 1984, the AUWE became part of the Admiralty Research Agency (ARE) and later the
Defence Research Agency (DRA) in 1991. ==References==