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  1. #1
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    Default REPORT: Edzell Air Base, Angus, Scotland

    This visit was a wee bit disappointing as there is no access onto the base, big barbed wire fences still surround it. The kids down here must be very law abiding as there are no holes cut in the fences ! Reasonably interesting wander along the perimeter, couple of old buildings & an empty bunker.
    HISTORY:
    The disused airfield of RAF Edzell, located near the village of Edzell, Angus, was home to a Circular Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA), located in the southern quadrant formed between the crossing of the airfield's two 1,500 metre runways.
    The airfield was first established to the east of the village during World War I, and was disbanded in 1919. During the 1930s it operated as a civilian airfield, but the outbreak of World War II saw its return to service in 1940, as RAF Edzell. The airfield served as an aircraft maintenance facility, and by the end of the war held some 800 aircraft in reserve.
    In the early 1950's the base housed a small detachment of USAF members of the 10th. Radio Squadron Mobile out of Chicksands RAF near Bedford, England. In the late 1950s the site was used as a motor racing circuit, however only few races were held before it was reopened. One of the last sports car races on the circuit was won by the future double World GP Champion Jim Clark. The last motor racing meeting at Edzell took place on Saturday, June 20, 1959.
    RAF Edzell reopened in 1960, forming part of the United States Navy (USN) global High Frequency Direction Finding (HFDF) network, used to track various targets around the world. Up to 3,000 personnel were said to have been stationed at RAF Edzell. The ending of the Cold War, and advances in technology rendered the HF network obsolete, and the base closed in October 1997, by which time staffing levels had fallen to 300 local, and 700 military personnel. This marked the end of 37 years of US Navy operations and 85 years of RAF service.
    From 1968 to 1978, US Navy staff from RAF Edzell also operated the Inverbervie CEW Radar Station, located a little over ten miles to the east on the headland at Inverbervie.
    £4 million was made available through the Central Challenge Fund over the following three years for a package of measures put forward by Angus and Aberdeenshire Councils, with the support of the Edzell Task Force, to strengthen the local economy following the withdrawal of the US Navy from RAF Edzell.[1]
    We are grateful to our friends at Subterranea Britannica for permission to reproduce the following details. Please be sure to review the original reports at the links given below.

    Computer and communications
    centre
    © Subterranea Britannica
    Site Name: RAF Edzell
    Edzell, Angus, Scotland
    RSG site visit 11th October 2001
    RAF Edzel was home to the US Navy security group's Oceanographic Monitoring Station, monitoring the North Sea and the coast around the north of Britain. It worked in conjunction with the former ROTOR site at Inverbervie which had also been taken over by the US Navy in 1960. The hub of the base was the massive receiver building which had two levels below ground. This would have relayed information to the computer and communications centre.
    The base closed in 1996, the domestic site has been sold and the housing reused. The airfield site is still secure with no evidence of any demolition. Site visits are inadvisable.
    © Subterranea Britannica
    In addition to its main HFDF role, Edzell is also believed to have hosted a USAF (United States Air Force) solar observatory. Such observatories, noting solar events which could affect long-distance communications, were normally equipped with an AN/FMQ-8 Optical Telescope (this may be in error, as we have subsequently identified the AN/FMQ-8 as a Dew Point and Temperature Measuring Facility, while the Solar Optical Telescope is designated AN/FMQ-7) and an AN/FRR-95 Radio Telescope. The actual configuration of equipment at the observatory is not known.
    A further activity at the base has been discovered in a report which includes the facility in a list of those which formed part of the US Navy's White Cloud Naval Observation Satellite System (NOSS) program:
    In its fully deployed form the Navy's White Cloud ELINT system has four groups of SSU satellites with orbital planes distributed at 60 to 120 degrees along the equator and a complex of ground stations for receiving and processing signals located in the US (Blossom Point, Maryland and Winter Harbor, Maine), Great Britain (Edsel (sic), Scotland), on the islands Guam, Diego Garcia, Adak, and in other locations. Operational control of the system is carried out by the Navy Space Command, and processing of the reconnaissance signals is done in the Navy's information center in Suitland (Maryland) and regional Navy intelligence centers in Spain, Great Britain, Japan and Hawaii.
    - The US Navy White Cloud Space borne ELINT System.[2]
    The base was also home to a small purchasing mission which acted on behalf of USAFE (United States Air Force Europe) in the matter of beef purchases, presumably Aberdeen Angus.

































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