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RAF FYLINGDALES

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Fylingdales is a long-range radar station, which forms part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) and Space Surveillance Network (SSN). It was the third and last of the BMEWS stations to be built; the first two are at Thule, Greenland and Clear, Alaska. The three famous 'golfball' radars were manufactured by RCA and installed in 1963. Each radome, to give the 'golfball' its official name, contained an 84ft. diameter parabolic dish antenna. Two of the radars would track from side to side, one looking for targets at an elevation of 2.5° above the horizontal and the other at 5°. If a target was 'painted' at 2.5° and then 5°, it might be a rocket in its boost phase, so the target would then be tracked by the third radar until its trajectory and any point of impact could be calculated. As well as its early-warning and space-tracking roles, Fylingdales has a third function in that it keeps track of spy satellites used by other countries, so that secret activities in the UK can be carried out when they are not overhead. Fylingdales was also an important site in the North Atlantic Radio System (NARS) - a 'troposcatter' radio network which connected to the USA via stations at Mormond Hill in Aberdeenshire, the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and Canada. Later a southern link to Martlesham Heath near Ipswich was added. In recent years the original 'golfball' radars have been replaced by a solid-state phased-array radar (SSPAR). This radar consists of a three-sided truncated pyramid about 120 feet high. Each face is about 84ft across and contains an array of 2,560 transmit/receive modules each with a circularly-polarised 'Pawsey stub' antenna. The new radar has the same 3000 mile range as the old one and was declared operational on 1st October 1992.

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SE 8641 9755. RAF Fylindales is situated adjacent to the A169 approximately 13 km south of Whitby, and 14 km north-north east of Pickering on a spur of Lockton High Moor known as Snod Hill.

The Radar Station is Site III of the Ballistic Early Warning Warning System, or BMEWS III. Together with two other sites, Thule Greenland (BMEWS I) and Clear Alaska (BMEWS II), RAF Fylingdales provided early warning against missile attacks on the North American continent and the United Kingdom. BMEWS III has been operational since January 1964: the three AN/FPS-49 radrs in their familiar 'golfballs' stood until 1 October 1992, when they were relieved of their duty by a new AN/FPS-115 Solid State Phased Array (SSPAR) or 'pyramid'.

At the time of survey the site consisted of three 25.60 diameter radar arrays housed in three radomes, or `golfballs' (trackers 301-303), a solid state phased array radar or SSPAR `pyramid', a power genrating house, a stores/warehouse building, workshops, a fire section, a motor transport section, an officer's mess, a junior ranks' club and sergeants' mess, the station headquarters, a guard house, and a number of ancillary structures.

Domestic accommodation is provided off site.

A full written report has been made on the site and the site has been recorded by ground photography.

Subsequent to this survey the AN/FPS-490 `tracker' equipment and the covering `golfballs' have beed dismantled. (1)

The site was originally going to be on Fylingdales Moor a few miles up the road but prior to building commencing concern was expressed that the site was on the cliff edge and therefore vulnerable to attack from a RPG or similar fired from a boat. The decision was therefore taken to move it inland a little way and the current site was selected. This is Snod Hill and rather than name the site 'RAF Snod' the Fylingdales name was retained.

There are some 400 personnel on site of which the majority were contractors from Serco with only 75 RAF staff the majority of which lived off site. There is a single USAF liaison officer who has 9 US civilians working with him as contractors. The MOD guard service has 19 staff and the MOD police is 60 strong but is being increased to 100 due to the risk of peace protesters invading the site (there is a small camp nearby). The site has a MOD Police checkpoint by the road and a further checkpoints at each of the fences. The outer fence is topped by an 8000 volt electrified section and all entrance gates can be locked and razor wire placed in the opening on large metal truss frames. (2)

SOURCE TEXT

(1) General reference

Wayne D Cocroft/23-MAR-2000/EH: Cold War Project

(2) World Wide Web page

Andrew Smith. 2002. RAF Fylingdales, http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/f/fylingdales/ [Accessed 30-MAY-2003]

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