The Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering (DSAE) is a Defence Training Establishment (DTEs) of the British

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. It was formed on 1 April 2004 and provides training for aircraft engineering officers and tradesmen across the three British

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

. The school comprises a headquarters,

No. 1 School of Technical Training No. 1 School of Technical Training (No. 1 S of TT) is the Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force's aircraft engineering school. It was based at RAF Halton from 1919 to 1993, as the Home of the Aircraft Apprentice scheme. The Aircraft Apprentice s ...

and the Aerosystems Engineer and Management Training School (now No. 2 School of Technical Training), all based at

RAF Cosford Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) is a Royal Air Force station near to the village of Cosford, Shropshire, England just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton. It is a training station, home to ...

, the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School (RNAESS) at , with elements also based at

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the RAF Colleg ...

and MOD St. Athan (No. 4 School of Technical Training).

History

The school was formed on 1 April 2004 as the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering (DCAE) and was one of five federated defence colleges formed after the

Defence Training Review The Defence Training Review was established by the then Defence Secretary, Lord Robertson, on 22 July 1999 to examine all individual training and education, Service and civilian, in the British armed forces. The review report, ''Modernising Defe ...

. In 2012, it joined three other technical training colleges under a combined organisation, the Defence College of Technical Training, and reverted in title to being a Defence School. On 17 January 2007,

Secretary of State for Defence The secretary of state for defence, also known as the defence secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Ministry of Defence. As a senior minister, the incumbent is a member of the ...

Des Browne Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton, (born 22 March 1952) is a Scottish politician who served in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as Secretary of State for Defence 2006 to 2008 and Secretary of ...

announced that

Metrix UK Metrix UK Ltd is a joint venture company, originally a 50/50 equity partnership between QinetiQ and LandSecurities Trillium, specifically set up to bid for the two main contracts under the UK Government's 2001 Defence Training Review (DTR) rat ...

, a joint venture between

Qinetiq QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

and

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc, trading as Landsec, is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom i ...

, had been selected as preferred bidder for Package One of Defence training. This would locate all Aeronautical Engineering training for all three services at

MOD St Athan Ministry of Defence St Athan or MOD St Athan ( Welsh: Maes awyr Sain Tathan), formerly known as Royal Air Force St Athan, or more simply RAF St Athan, is a large Ministry of Defence unit near the village of St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, sou ...

in 2017. The project was terminated in 2010 as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, undertaken by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Constituent elements

The school comprises a headquarters and four affiliated schools.

Headquarters

The DSAE headquarters is based at the

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. The school reports to the Defence College of Technical Training (DCTT) which, in turn, is part of the Royal Air Force's

No. 22 Group No. 22 Group Royal Air Force (22 Gp) is one of six groups currently active in the Royal Air Force (RAF), falling under the responsibility of Deputy Commander-in-Chief (Personnel) in Air Command. Its previous title up until 2018 was No. 22 (Trai ...

. Between 2004 and 2009 the station at Cosford was known as DCAE Cosford.

No. 1 School of Technical Training

The RAF's

is based at RAF Cosford and provides RAF personnel with mechanical, avionics, weapons and survival equipment training. The school trains around 2,000 students per year.

No. 2 School of Technical Training

Professional and management training is provided to RAF personnel by the Aerosystems Engineer and Management Training School (AE&MTS) based at RAF Cosford.

Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School

Based at located at

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, the Royal Navy's Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School provides aeronautical engineering and survival equipment training to Royal Navy personnel. The school is divided into six elements – a headquarters, 764 Initial Training Squadron, the Advanced Training Group, the Common Training Group, the Specialist Training Group and the Training Support Group.

School of Army Aeronautical Engineering

Based at MOD Lyneham in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, the Army's aviation engineering school delivers aeronautical engineering training to

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

personnel in the

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is the maintenance arm of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's professional engineers". History Prior t ...

(REME).{{cite web , title=Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers , url=https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/corps-of-royal-electrical-and-mechanical-engineers-reme/, accessdate=19 September 2023 SAAE trains potential aeronautical Technicians, Supervisor, Artificers and Engineering Officers for frontline Joint Helicopter Command roles in order to sustain REME Aviation.

References

External links

DCAE Website

DCAE Cranwell

No. 22 Training Group
Aeronautical engineering schools Engineering education in the United Kingdom Military training establishments of the United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 2004 Organisations based in Shropshire Organisations based in Lincolnshire Aeronautics organizations Defence agencies of the United Kingdom 2004 establishments in the United Kingdom