Construction is expected to start next month on the Chemical Weapons Defence Centre, which will have ‘cutting-edge’ chemical analysis laboratories able to identify chemical agents through forensic analysis.
Defence secretary Gavin Williamson told an audience in Bristol on 15 March: “I can announce we are investing £48m in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to maintain our cutting-edge in chemical analysis and defence.
“The choice before us as a nation is simple – to sit back and let events overtake us or step forward.”
He also said he had decided to offer the anthrax vaccine to army troops “at the highest readiness”.
The comes in the wake of the attempted murder by poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury on 4 March.
The defence science and technology laboratory at Porton Down was instrumental in identifying Russia as the source of the nerve gas and has been at the centre of the clean-up operation in Salisbury.
Williamson was speaking at a Policy Exchange event, where he outlined his vision for the ongoing Modernising Defence Programme, which he launched earlier this year.
The headline conclusions are expected in the summer.
