BMARC

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BMARC also stands for Bulgarian Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee .
BMARC also stands for Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club.
BMARC is also related to BMARC.NET a news blog endeavoring to provide the latest in tech news.

BMARC (The British Manufacture and Research Company) was a UK-based firm designing and producing defence products, particularly aircraft cannon and naval anti-aircraft cannon. It was based on Springfield Lane (a part of the A1), Grantham, Lincolnshire.

The company was created during the start of the World War II rearmament period solely as a weapons producer. In 1943, for example, it fulfilled 46 % of the UK's demand for the Hispano-Suiza 20 mm cannon. The remainder came from the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) - 25%, a Royal Ordnance Factory - 25 % and the Royal Small Arms Factory - 3 %. At the time of the Battle of Britain in 1941, 20 mm cannon were only just starting to arm the Spitfire and Hurricane. By 1943, the RAF had converted entirely to cannon armament for its fighters. Grantham received 21 raids by the Luftwaffe for precisely this reason, which killed 70 people in 1941 (around the Commercial Road area).

In 1974, the company acquired a site at Faldingworth (near Market Rasen) that had the capability to store nuclear weapons such as Redbeard and WE.177. BMARC was a subsidiary of Hispano-Suiza, then was owned until 1987 by Oerlikon, the Swiss defence contractor, when it was sold to Astra Holdings (head office in the USA). In the 1990s, the company was investigated for alleged illegal dealings with Iraq.

After the financial collapse of Astra Holdings, in April 1992, BMARC was bought by British Aerospace briefly becoming part of Royal Ordnance. The company later closed in 1992, and the site was sold in 1994.

[edit] Current use of the site

The former site's offices are now home to the Springfield Business Park, with the rest of the site (factory) developed for housing.

[edit] External links