On the south financial institution of the Clyde, in part of Govan that has modified as a lot because the industries that after outlined it, stands a constructing most Glaswegians have by no means seen inside. To at least one aspect, police helicopters rise from town’s major helipad, and on the opposite, certainly one of Europe’s largest hospitals.
Throughout the river, new glass-fronted developments look towards the shipyards the place Royal Navy frigates take form. Between them, in a quiet industrial facility that also hums with the rhythm of engineering, Thales Optronics and Missile Electronics goes quietly about its work.
From the skin, it seems to be unremarkable. Inside, the ambiance feels nearer to a laboratory than a manufacturing unit. Engineers sit underneath white gentle, adjusting optics and calibrating sensors that can quickly information the eyes of Britain’s most superior autos and submarines.
Govan has modified, and so has Thales. The location’s work traces a direct line again to Barr and Stroud, the Glasgow agency that constructed the Royal Navy’s first periscopes. The identify is totally different and the expertise unrecognisable, however the identical precision, craft and quiet satisfaction nonetheless form what occurs right here.
For greater than a century this web site has been shaping how the nation sees its enemies. The corporate’s lineage runs again to 1888 when two Glasgow College engineers, Archibald Barr and William Stroud, started producing optical rangefinders in a tenement workshop off Ashton Lane. Their agency, Barr and Stroud, went on to produce the Royal Navy with the periscopes that outfitted each submarine by two world wars. The identify above the door has modified, however the spirit of precision and innovation stays.
A line that runs from Barr and Stroud to the current day
The go to started with a brief briefing from Martin Parker, a former RAF fast-jet navigator whose profession has taken him from Twister squadrons to Eurofighter simulators and now to a facility that produces optical methods for land, sea and air. We quickly headed out to the power for a tour.
“That is the unique advert from Engineering Journal of Might 1818,” Parker stated proudly once we have been within the atrium space of the power, “a word from the Battle Workplace requesting tenders for vary finders for infantry. Paragraph three says an individual of abnormal intelligence and regular imaginative and prescient should be capable to develop into an environment friendly vary taker after a month’s coaching.”
“Docs Barr and Stroud bought collectively in Dr Barr’s bed room and got here up with a design for a spread finder. That is the second they ever made,” he added. “The Military liked it as a result of it was lifeless simple to make use of and due to the standard of the optics. Up till then, all the binoculars and periscopes had been imported from Germany.”
When the Royal Navy realized of the design, Parker stated, “they stated, ‘That’s okay for the Military, however we’ve bought warships.’ These ‘drain pipes’ on the entrance of First World Battle battleships have been truly Barr and Stroud vary finders.”
He mirrored on how the location itself has advanced over time. Within the post-war years, the outdated industrial mannequin had develop into unsustainable, very similar to the broader shipbuilding sector alongside this stretch of the Clyde. The current facility occupies what was as soon as the Alexander Stephen shipyard. Pilkington invested in redeveloping the location and relocated operations there in 1992, starting work on the non-hull-penetrating mast for submarines that might develop into a key innovation in British naval design.
Parker spoke about how deeply these origins are tied to Glasgow’s id. The identify Barr and Stroud nonetheless resonates throughout town as a part of its industrial heritage. The corporate’s authentic premises in Anniesland have since been transformed into retailers, pubs and cafés, however the technical lineage endures. The experience that after outlined Glasgow’s West Finish now continues just a few miles downriver in Govan, the place the identical custom of optical precision stays central to the Royal Navy’s submarines. Each boat ever constructed for the service has carried a periscope made in Glasgow, a continuity stretching again to 1888.
As he spoke, he made clear that continuity issues to the workforce. The names have modified, Barr and Stroud, Thomson-CSF, now Thales, however the objective has not.
Contained in the restricted zones of the plant, the soundscape is subdued: a gentle hum of extraction followers, the clicking of switches, the occasional whir of a testing rig. Every product is hand-built and examined in its personal chamber, extra akin to a physics lab than a manufacturing unit ground. Engineers calibrate stabilisation methods, align lasers and verify thermal cameras towards managed warmth sources.
The location’s output spans the armed forces. For the Royal Navy, it builds the periscope and optronic mast methods that equip Astute-class submarines. For the British Military, it produces the stabilised digital camera and sighting methods put in on Ajax reconnaissance autos and Challenger 3 tanks. And for the Royal Air Drive, it provides components of the Elix-IR risk warning system quickly to be fitted to the E-7 Wedgetail and A400M Atlas plane.
Digital Crew and the shift to information
One of many latest developments on present was the “Digital Crew” undertaking, an idea that turns years of optical experience right into a data-driven command system. In an illustration suite, a collection of screens displayed a simulated battlefield seen by a number of sensors: seen gentle, infrared, short-wave infrared and acoustic. Inside seconds, the system had fused the info right into a single panoramic picture, tagging potential threats mechanically.
“It sits metaphorically subsequent to the crew,” Parker defined. “It learns from what it sees. If one thing strikes in another way or doesn’t belong, it flags it earlier than a human might.” The thought is to not substitute human judgment however to offer troopers and sailors an additional pair of eyes. The purpose is to create a system that may migrate seamlessly throughout domains.
Digital Crew represents a shift in id for Thales Glasgow. As soon as recognized solely for optics, the location is now a software program and systems-integration centre, connecting sensors, lasers and cameras right into a unified digital image. Turning pixels into selections.
Extra on this quickly as a part of our collection on what goes on inside Thales UK in Govan. Keep tuned all through the week for extra.
TrueHunter
Few merchandise illustrate the location’s experience extra clearly than the True Hunter household of stabilised sights. These compact optical turrets, developed and in-built Govan, are fitted to the Challenger 3 major battle tank and Ajax reconnaissance automobile and have been chosen for the German Military’s Boxer programme.
The machine itself resembles a small turret in regards to the dimension of a helmet, matte gray and strong. When activated, it locks its discipline of view with outstanding precision, compensating immediately for motion. “Three screws and two connectors,” Parker stated with a smile. “You’ll be able to take away and substitute the whole unit in 5 minutes.”
Engineers on the store ground discuss with the system as a benchmark in its class. One stated quietly, “There may be no person on the planet who can match what we do right here. The stabilisation precision, the picture readability, the modular design, it’s world-leading.”
Extra on this quickly as a part of our collection on what goes on inside Thales UK in Govan. Keep tuned all through the week for extra.
From periscopes to digital masts
Upstairs, the tour reached the ‘tower’, the place technicians have been engaged on the CM10 optronic mast, the successor to the traditional periscope. The mast permits submarines to see 360 levels across the vessel with out reducing a big gap by the stress hull, transmitting high-definition imagery and radar information down an digital hyperlink.
This expertise is now being taken a step additional for the Royal Navy’s Dreadnought-class ballistic missile submarines. In 2023, Thales was awarded a £169 million contract to supply a brand new Built-in Fight System Mast, probably the most superior on this planet. Every submarine will carry two of them, every combining visible sensors, digital warfare instruments and communications methods inside a single housing.
The design builds on a century of growth that started when Barr and Stroud delivered the Royal Navy’s first submarine periscope. Each British submarine since has carried a Glasgow-built optical system. The Dreadnought mast is smaller, quieter and extra succesful than any of its predecessors, incorporating a next-generation radar digital assist system. The location’s engineers are clear that Glasgow is the one place on this planet in a position to manufacture visible methods at this stage of precision. “At this stage, there’s no person else,” one informed me. “Notably with stabilisation and the combination of optical and digital methods. It’s irreplaceable functionality.”
Extra on this quickly as a part of our collection on what goes on inside Thales UK in Govan. Keep tuned all through the week for extra.
Miniaturisation and cross-domain innovation
A recurring theme throughout the go to was miniaturisation. Parker lifted a small dice of apparatus, roughly the dimensions of a shoebox. “That is Sasha,” he stated, referring to the compact sensor array. “Eight cameras in seen, infrared and short-wave bands, all completely aligned.”
That type of compactness has reworked each land and naval methods. Decreasing dimension and energy necessities has allowed engineers to suit extra sensors into smaller masts, giving submarines and armoured autos higher consciousness with out including weight or noise. The identical miniaturisation work has fed into Thales’s new Built-in Fight System Mast for Dreadnought, making it one-third the dimensions of earlier fashions.
The corporate calls it cross-domain innovation: classes realized on land bettering efficiency at sea and vice versa.
Folks behind the precision
Within the design centre at Govan, I met among the individuals who preserve Britain’s most delicate optical methods working. Martin Parker launched them one after the other: engineers from each land and maritime groups, a number of graduate apprentices, and veterans of the armed forces who now apply their expertise in trade.
One engineer, answerable for sustaining the Warrior sighting system, described how his work retains the autos operational till the brand new Ajax fleet is absolutely launched. One other, a former submariner, spoke in regards to the significance of reliability beneath the floor and the way his crew helps the fleet when an optronics mast or periscope wants pressing consideration. If one mast fails, a ship can keep on patrol; if each fail, it should floor and return to port. Their job, he stated, is to verify crews can stay protected at sea.
Ellen, a graduate apprentice, mentioned her transfer from thermal imaging cameras to the design of auto sighting methods. She mirrored on studying methods to stability efficiency with manufacturability and discipline sturdiness, paying shut consideration to particulars comparable to cable routing and accessibility. Her feedback captured a theme that ran all through the go to: an emphasis on security, usability and endurance.
The dialogue quickly turned to how the design groups be taught from those that use their methods. Parker talked about a latest go to by Royal Engineers from Leuchars who, somewhat than posing for photographs inside a automobile, instantly inspected its underside to grasp upkeep entry. That, he defined, was the type of suggestions that shapes design selections and informs judgments about acceptable ranges of damage and degradation.
A senior engineer outlined the dual priorities dealing with the location: sustaining the operational availability of present platforms whereas guaranteeing that future programmes comparable to Dreadnought ship new ranges of functionality. He spoke of the corporate’s gradual shift from supplying particular person parts to delivering full, built-in methods, a transition he considered as transformative for the enterprise. Reflecting on Glasgow’s function in defence innovation, he stated the location stays the one place in the UK able to producing visible methods at this stage of sophistication.
Then he put it bluntly however pretty: “This web site is the one place within the UK that has the potential to supply that visible system, truly the one place on this planet at this stage. No person on planet Earth can match what we do.”
That sense of objective runs deep. Round fifteen p.c of the workforce are veterans, many bringing first-hand operational information into the design course of. Twice a yr, the corporate hosts “Army Inside Days” for personnel approaching the top of their service, encouraging them to contemplate second careers in engineering. Parker defined that using former operators helps the corporate be taught earlier and design higher for these nonetheless serving.
He recalled one instance of collaboration with submariners that led to a delicate however necessary ergonomic enchancment to the Astute-class management station, an adjustment that made it simpler for operators to take care of management with out breaking focus. Such refinements, he stated, come up solely when finish customers are instantly concerned.
Contained in the labs, this strategy has develop into routine. Engineers now run workshops with service personnel to check the format of controls, button placement and the logic of person interfaces. Operators are invited to take a seat on the console, deal with the controls, and determine what feels intuitive. The smallest design selections, comparable to avoiding a button the place a notepad would possibly strike it or a key the place somebody’s hand naturally rests, can matter underneath stress.
Youthful service members, engineers noticed, deliver totally different expectations formed by civilian expertise. Many favor management interfaces that resemble acquainted gaming gadgets, asking for Xbox or PlayStation-style inputs. The groups in Govan design accordingly.
Inspiring the following technology
Away from the workshops and check rigs, the crew at Govan is working to get extra younger individuals involved in engineering. Thales companions with the charity SmartSTEMs to assist pupils throughout Glasgow perceive what a profession in science and expertise can provide. The corporate runs visits, mentoring periods and occasions the place engineers present how the talents realized at school can result in actual jobs in trade.
It additionally works with six associate colleges within the metropolis. It was defined to me that these colleges have been chosen as a result of they’re in areas that haven’t all the time benefited from the identical entry to employers or trade hyperlinks. The purpose is to make engineering really feel like a practical and rewarding choice for each younger particular person, not simply those that have already got a transparent route into it.
Parker put it plainly: “We’re proud not simply of what we ship for the armed forces, however of what we deliver to the neighborhood, from native colleges to the charities we assist throughout town.”
A Glasgow story
Thales’ management recognises that its presence in Glasgow can entice scrutiny. Defence work divides opinion, but the corporate regards its function as each industrial and civic. The significance of public understanding was not misplaced on me, the methods produced right here on the Clyde are designed to guard lives and are constructed responsibly.
Inside the power, the ambiance is certainly one of cautious, methodical work. Engineers develop stabilised optics, thermal cameras and sensor methods that enhance visibility and management for crews in complicated environments. The merchandise that depart Govan are supposed to improve notion and security for these defending us.
That distinction has develop into clearer throughout the battle in Ukraine. Techniques in-built Glasgow have contributed to early-warning networks that detect plane and drones, offering civilians with valuable seconds to hunt shelter. Some depend on expertise first developed a long time in the past, but they proceed to save lots of lives, demonstrating the enduring worth of the work achieved on the Clyde.
Opening such a web site to journalists is rare, however the resolution indicators confidence in each the workforce and town. Glasgow’s function in the UK’s defence trade is seldom a part of nationwide industrial debates, although its contribution is substantial. As I stepped again exterior, the sound of testing rigs pale into the visitors alongside Govan Street. It was a reminder that this unassuming constructing homes a continuation of the economic spirit that after outlined the Clyde.