AWE

State-owned design, manufacture and maintenance of the UK's nuclear warheads.

State-owned organisation responsible for designing, manufacturing and maintaining the warheads for the UK's nuclear deterrent. Operations began at Aldermaston in 1950; today AWE, operating as AWE Nuclear Security Technologies, runs the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites in Berkshire with around 9,000 employees. Since July 2021 it has been an arm's length non-departmental public body wholly owned by the Ministry of Defence.