The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE) was a British defence research unit on Chobham Lane, Chertsey in Surrey. It was responsible for many innovations in armoured vehicle design, including ceramic Chobham armour. History The Admiralty's Landships Committee was created in 1915 to oversee the development of what would become known as tanks. In the same year, the Design Department was set up at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. The Tank and Tracked Transport Experiment Establishment (TTTEE) was formed at Farnborough in 1925, which in turn spawned the Mechanical Warfare Experimental Establishment (MWEE) in 1928. The MWEE was renamed the Mechanisation Experimental Establishment (MEE) in 1934 and in 1940 the MEE merged with elements of the Design Department at Woolwich to form the Department of Tank Design. In 1942 the DTD at Farnborough spawned the Fighting Vehicles Proving Establishment (FVPE), which moved to a new purpose-built camp in Chertsey on the site of the former RAF Chobham that was convenient for testing tanks on Chobham Heath. The Wheeled Vehicles Experimental Establishment (WVEE) was also formed out of the DTD in that year, and moved to Chertsey in 1943. In 1946 the DTD merged with WVEE to form the Fighting Vehicle Design Department (FVDD) at Chertsey alongside the FVPE. The FVDD was renamed the Fighting Vehicle Design Establishment (FVDE) in 1948. Four years later the FVPE and FVDE merged to create the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE). FVRDE and the Military Experimental Engineering Establishment (MEXE) at Christchurch amalgamated in 1970 to form the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE). In 1984-5 Chertsey became the Vehicles Department of the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) as the MVEE and the Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment (PERME) based at Waltham Abbey and Westcott, merged with RARDE Fort Halstead. In the wake of the ending of the Cold War, RARDE merged with other research establishments in April 1991 to form the Defence Research Agency (DRA), an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence. In turn, DRA became a division of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in 1995. The Chertsey and Christchurch sites were among those allocated to Qinetiq when DERA was broken up in 2001 with the intention that Qinetiq would be privatised, which happened in 2006. Technologies such as electric armour were retained within the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The research staff at Chertsey were joined