The RAF Station With Its Eyes and Ears Firmly on the Enemies of the West
While most people associate RAF stations with the operation of military aircraft, the installation of a runway at one of the most famous bases in Britain has never even been considered in its seven decades of monitoring enemy activities. Despite the seeming lack of observable military activity, this particular station has always attracted a constant wave of sightseers eager to snap photos of its listening devices, even after transitioning away from the traditional ‘golf ball’ design in the early 1990s.
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Giant toaster radar can spot a drinks can in space
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RAF Fylingdales located on the North Yorkshire Moors around 10 miles south of Whitby, is synonymous with the Cold War. It is essentially a giant monitoring device providing a 24/7 service to Britain and its allies, warning of any missiles launched towards the West. Declared operational in September 1963, the station initially comprised three radomes. These giant ‘golf ball’ structures allowed NATO to eavesdrop on the Soviet Union, providing the country and its allies with an ominous four-minute warning ahead of any attack.
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The station’s motto is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Vigilamus, which translates from Latin as “we are watching” or “we are awake”. The Fylingdales unit badge consists of the White Rose of Yorkshire and a flaming torch, representing its role as a sentry against any sudden surprise attack.
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Remembered by those of a certain age for its much-loved yet eerily ominous radomes, the original structures were eventually replaced by a Solid-State Phased Array Radar (S-SPAR). Dubbed by some as the ‘giant toaster’, this new device was declared operational in 1992 and is capable of detecting an item the size of a drinks can 3,000 miles into space.
Thirty years before the arrival of the S-SPAR, Fylingdales’ three original listening devices were constructed to form one part of a triumvirate of centres making up the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). The station went online around the same time as Thule in Greenland and Clear in Alaska. It quickly became a slightly macabre tourist attraction, considering its role in predicting the near-certain deaths of millions of people across the globe.ce
Initial plans were to site Fylingdales on a cliffside a few miles north. However, concerns about a potential attack from enemy craft operating off the coast saw it moved inland. The site retained the Fylingdales name but was built instead at Snod Hill—a choice likely driven by a limited desire to call the base RAF Snod!
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Snod Hill was originally a wartime mortar range and a post-WWII munitions dump. The RAF Bomb Disposal unit cleared the site before construction work began in 1960 as a joint operation between Britain and the US. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) developed the site, and RCA (Great Britain)—now Serco Group—maintained it.
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The three original radomes each housed an 84-foot-diameter parabolic dish antenna. The protective shells surrounding them were made up of more than 1,600 individual panels around six inches thick. This gave them their giant ‘golf ball’ appearance and prevented both the enemy and the public from seeing where they were pointed.
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Two of the radomes tracked side to side, with the first detecting targets at an elevation of 2.5 degrees above the horizontal, and the second at 5 degrees above the horizontal to catch a missile reaching its boost phase. The third radome would then track the missile, calculating its trajectory and determining its potential impact point. While most people were unaware of the exact nature of the work at Fylingdales, it soon became a must-see attraction for those holidaying on the North Yorkshire coast.
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Iconic, era-defining ‘golf ball’ radomes
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However, security at what is a strategically crucial site was just as high in the 1960s as it is today. Armed personnel routinely moved on any motorists who parked near the base for any prolonged period.
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In the late 1980s, work began to upgrade the station's listening capabilities. The three radomes were replaced by the S-SPAR tetrahedron (pyramid) structure, a 120-foot (37-metre) high radar built by the US defence contractor Raytheon.
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Today, Fylingdales remains a British asset operated and commanded by the RAF. In addition to forming part of the BMEWS network, it tracks orbiting devices as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. Fylingdales also monitors spy satellites for the UK under the responsibility of UK Space Command, providing critical information utilized by the armed services and defence manufacturers.
A workforce of between 300 and 400 personnel is based at Fylingdales, including around ten US personnel led by a single USAF liaison officer. Security remains key to the successful operation of the station. The site is protected by the MoD Guard Service alongside between 60 and 100 MoD Police officers, an 8,000-volt electrified outer fence, and entrance points that can be fully locked down with razor wire.
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