Defence Training Estates is an organisation within the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. It is the operating division of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, responsible for the management of the 78% of the defence estate allocated as Training Areas and Ranges. The organisation is responsible for provision of sufficient and suitable estate to support the training requirements of the British Armed Forces whilst assuring environmental management and appropriate historical and archaeological preservation.
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Structure and partners
The organisation is headquartered at the Land Warfare Centre, Warminster and has a number of regional headquarters responsible for the management of the training estate on a regional basis.
DTE works with nature conservation bodies to safeguard designated sites and protected species within the estate. These bodies include the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
Some practical support is outsourced to Landmarc Solutions, a joint venture between Interserve (a UK support services company) and PAE (an American multinational support services company owned by Lindsay Goldberg).
Public access
DTE operate a principle of presumption of public access to the training estate. Access is limited where training and exercise activities are taking place or where the use of munitions precludes safe access.
Conservation and archaeology
As much of the training estate remains undeveloped, either through habitation or agriculture, the training estate holds considerable conservation and archaeological value.
Training Areas: England
Training areas that the DTE is responsible for include:
Salisbury Plain Training Area
The Salisbury Plain Training Area covers around half of Salisbury Plain and provides a number of facilities including:
Barton Stacey Training Area
Land around former camps at Barton Stacey.
Warcop Training Area
Warcop Training Area (WTA) is a 24,000 acres (9,700 ha) area in the North Pennines in Cumbria. Operated by the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick Garrison, WTA has facilities for infantry and tank live-fire training.
Stanford Training Area
Stanford Training Area, known as STANTA is a large operational training area in the vicinity of Norwich used by the Operational Training and Advisory Group for pre-deployment training.
Sennybridge Training Area
Sennybridge Training Area, known as SENTA, lies to the north of the Brecon Beacons.
Dartmoor
Okehampton Camp
Training Areas: Scotland
DTE Scotland is responsible for:
Barry Buddon Training Centre, Angus.
Cape Wrath Training Centre, Sutherland.
Castlelaw Training Area and Ranges, Pentland Hills, Midlothian.
Fort George Training Area, Inverness.
Garelochhead Training Camp, Argyll and Bute – accommodation and dry training up to Battalion strength.
Kirkcudbright Training Area, Dumfries and Galloway, including the Dundrennan Range, the only open air live depleted uranium weapons test range in the British Isles.
Strone Camp, Argyll and Bute – accommodation to Company strength and FIBUA training area.