The Fort of Evegnée is located about 10km west of Herstal site. Fort d'Évegnée is one of twelve forts built as part of the fortifications of Liège in the 1880s. Built between 1881 and 1884 according to the plans of General Henri Alexis Brialmont, it has served many years for the Belgian Army.

In 1971, the Fort was acquired by Thales Belgium (formerly Forges de Zeebrugge - FZ) from the Belgian Army and underwent numerous facelifts before being able to welcome the personnel of Thales Belgium in complete safety.
Today, the Fort serves as a warehouse for explosive and pyrotechnic components with a storage capacity of 49 tons of explosives. Thales Belgium SA uses these installations mainly to assemble pyrotechnic components in two production halls and to develop its test and product validation skills by performing different tests :

• test in climatic rooms allowing temperatures from 74 to -54°C
• “salt fog” environmental test
• impact and vibration machines
• drop test (up to 12 metres)
• static firing on test bench to validate rocket motor performance
• firing tunnel for dynamic tests

All these means enable Thales Belgium to control the quality of the products manufactured and to develop new products. They are managed by the Quality Assurance department (ISO 9001:2008) which therefore has the material necessary to validate the quality of the products to satisfy customer's requirements.

The Fort of Evegnée was operated by the Belgian Defence to protect the kingdom of Belgium against the German invasion during WWI and WW2. Unfortunately, not all the Forts resisted despite a unique effort of heroism.