RAF Fylingdales, Lockton, North Yorkshire
Author(s): Roger Thomas
RAF Fylingdales is situated adjacent to the A169, approximately 13km (8 miles) south of Whitby, and 14km (834 miles) north-north-east of Pickering. The site is located on Lockton High Moor, an area of peat moorland overlying mid Jurassic oolite beds. The tracker site is situated on a spur called Snod Hill, some 268m (879ft) above the Ordnance Datum. The radar station is Site III of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, or BMEWS IH. Together with two other sites, Thule Greenland (BMEWS I) and Clear Alaska (BMEWS II), RAF Fylingdales provides early warning against missile attacks on the North American continent and the United Kingdom. BMEWS Ill has been operational since January 1964; the three AN/FPS-49 radars in their familiar 'golfballs' stood sentinel over the bleak North York Moors until the 1st October 1992, when they were relieved of their duty by a new AN/FPS-1 15 Solid State Phased Array Radar (SSPAR) or 'pyramid'. At the time of survey (October 1992), the site consisted of three 25.60m (84ft) diameter radar arrays housed in three radomes, or 'golfballs' (trackers 301 - 303), a solid state phased array radar or SSPAR 'pyramid', a power generating house, a stores/warehouse building, workshops, a fire section, a motor transport section, an officers' mess; a junior ranks' club and sergeant's mess, the station headquarters, a guard house, and a number of ancillary structures.
- Report Number:
- 128/1998
- Series:
- Other
- Pages:
- 19
- Keywords:
- Modern Cold War Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
