Images of £144m Staffordshire barracks revealed
Spread over a sprawling 68-acre site, these artist impressions give a glimpse of how a new multi-million pound military base for thousands of military staff in Staffordshire will look, as more details about the development emerged.
Thousands of army, navy and RAF medical trainees will be based each year at the £144 million site, which is due to open next March.
And bosses today revealed that more than 127 courses will run for students while actors will be brought in to take part in reconstructions of military operations alongside the sounds of real gunfire.
Six accommodation blocks for students and senior military personal are being built as part of the Defence Medical Services, Whittington, facility and will feature ensuite bathrooms, with kitchens and laundry facilities.
The Hatherton Block will feature a 240-seated lecture theatre and conference facility, as well as a defence medical library.
Meanwhile the training centre will include 44 classrooms, practice wards, pharmacy and office space. The community hub features a dining hall, three bars, cafe, games room, TV room and shop.
Further details have also emerged about the studies that will be carried out at the site. More than 127 courses will run there for the 8,500 students based at the 68-acre site.
Lieutenant Paul Falconer, who is based at the barracks, said actors staging military training operations would give a more realistic atmoshere.
"We will be able to use real gun fire shot sounds," he added.
"After their training they will go out to a particular part of the navy, army or RAF. They all go somewhere. There is a place for all of them."
The students will also be sent over to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to complete practical parts of their six-month courses.
Colonel Ian Harper, commanding officer at the barracks, added: "This facility will inform the whole of the Ministry of Defence. "What will be here will be state-of-the-art."
