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6 January 2007

From: Alan Turnbull - UK Secret Bases - www.secret-bases.co.uk

3 Jan 2007

New Bird's Eye of HMGCC Hanslope Park intel base reveals £30 million building project

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Everyone in the UK intelligence business is familiar with Her Majesty's Government Communications Centre (HMGCC) at the Hanslope Park estate and manor house in the Buckinghamshire countryside, north of London. Not to be confused with GCHQ over in Cheltenham.

Hanslope was acquired by the Foreign Office for covert activities well before WWII and was used by MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in its early formative years.

Throughout WWII and the Cold War, it was a key location for the "Diplomatic Wireless Service". In more recent decades it has taken on the role of providing hardware and software for the UK Government, which has led to its experts being compared to gadget man 'Q' in the James Bond films. The site is unique in providing every stage in a project's life, from research through materials manufacture, assembly and testing.

Frustratingly, it currently appears just off the edge of Google Earth's hi-res coverage, but it has been available on Getmapping's imagery since 1999. Additionally, you can use Windows Live Local to zoom in close-up to Getmapping's data but the Bird's Eye button fails to pop-up, such is the sparsity of UK oblique aerial photography.

Imagine my delight when my regular talented contributor with a pilot's licence and steady hands sent me a brand new Pilot's Eye shot of HMGCC Hanslope Park. Upon close inspection, his oblique imagery showed a fascinating difference when compared to Getmapping's original shots.

A £30 million building project was shown underway - the construction of a new three-storey office block and computer centre to house the Foreign Office's next generation global secure IT desktop infrastructure, supplied by one of the world's most famous hardware and software providers.

The seven-year £320 million contract, signed by the Foreign Office in 2005, is the biggest in its history and it even has a suitably James Bond sounding codename.

As with all sensitive items on my website, the new exclusive imagery has been officially cleared in advance by both the UK Security Service (MI5) and SIS (MI6), through the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee (formerly D-Notice).

Check out the imagery and the full project details (complete with that codename) at a newly updated section on Secret Bases Part 1:-

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan-turnbull/secret.htm#HMGCC