RAF Menwith Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Royal Air Force Station Menwith Hill
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| Part of USAF Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency (AFISR) | |
| Located near Harrogate, Yorkshire, England | |
 Menwith Hill from the air |
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| Type | Royal Air Force Station |
| Built | 1954 |
| In use | 1954-Present |
| Current owner |
Royal Air Force |
| Controlled by | USAF Air Intelligence Agency |
| Garrison | 451st Intelligence Squadron |
RAF Menwith Hill is a Royal Air Force station, located approximately eight miles west of the Yorkshire town of Harrogate.
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[edit] Overview
The station is the principal NATO theater ground segment node for high altitude signals intelligence satellites.[clarify] Nominally a British Royal Air Force facility, only physical security and UK liaison functions are carried out by MoD personnel. According to the BBC News Online it is the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.[1]
In addition to the Army personnel, the United States Air Force 451st Information Operations Squadron(451 IOS) as an integral part of the station. Inside the closely-guarded 560-acre (2.3 km²) base are two large operations blocks and many satellite tracking dishes and domes.
Menwith Hill Station is an extensive complex of domes, vertical masts and satellite dishes, as well as more than 4.9 acres of buildings. There are 23 spherical domes and three satellite dishes. The tall radio masts appear to be high frequency radio supports. Since 1985 the number of domes and dishes at the base has increased from four to 26. The two 16-meter domes will require moving the site boundary, including fencing and lights, around 160 meters closer to the A59 Harrogate-Skipton road to the south. The expansion is to establish a European ground relay system at Menwith Hill which will be part of a new generation of satellite communications.
Similar facilities appear to exist at Waihopai Valley, New Zealand; Pine Gap, Australia; Misawa Air Base, Japan and Buckley Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado.
[edit] Base location
Up until 2003 the base had a Royal Navy equivalent nearby, HMS Forest Moor. No longer a Naval base, this is now run by civilian contractors with MoD assistance.
Menwith Hill is highly recognisable by its several dozen radomes ('golf balls'), each containing a satellite dish. Many of these are used for signals interception from communications satellites: they are commonly thought to be part of the ECHELON system.[citation needed] Other parts of the site are thought to be used by the Space Based Infrared System employed by the US National Missile Defence program.[citation needed] The latter use of the base, alongside the joint US/UK radar station at RAF Fylingdales is particularly controversial.
The base has attracted significant levels of protest from anti-nuclear and pacifist groups.[1] Some groups, in an effort to disrupt and focus attention on the activities of the base, have staged frequent infiltrations and have damaged various radomes.[citation needed]
According to the Global Network Against Weapons and Power in Space, Menwith Hill is "crucial for the US Administration's plans for 'Full Spectrum Dominance'". Full Spectrum Dominance refers to the US's alleged intention to dominate space, denying the use of space (including orbital, air, surface and sub-surface space) to other nations or their forces as well as maintaining the ability to monitor and/or disrupt communications worldwide throughout the electromagnetic spectrum and information space, for strategic or tactical purposes.
[edit] Missile base
In 2007 Defence Secretary Des Browne announced that the base would be used to house part of the communications systems for a US missile system to defend against "rogue states", although any missiles would be based elsewhere.[2] This was put through parliament in a written statement, thus not allowing for debate, and generating some controversy.[3]
[edit] History
Menwith Hill Station was opened on 545 acres (2.21 km²) of land acquired by the British War Office in 1954 and leased to the United States. Under the U.S. Army, the station monitored High Frequency radio communications. In 1956 by the US Army Security Agency (ASA) was established at the facility. It was operated by the ASA from 1958 until its turnover to National Security Agency (NSA) in June 1966. Initial operations focused on monitoring international cable and microwave communications passing through Britain. In the early 1960s Menwith Hill was one of the first sites in the world to receive sophisticated early IBM computers, with which NSA automated the labor-intensive watch-list scrutiny of intercepted but unenciphered telex messages. Since then, Menwith Hill has sifted the international messages, telegrams, and telephone calls of citizens, corporations or governments to select information of political, military or economic value.
Until 1974, Menwith Hill's SIGINT specialty was evidently the interception of International Leased Carrier signals, the communications links run by civil agencies -- the Post, Telegraph and Telephone ministries of eastern and western European countries. The National Security Agency took over Menwith Hill in 1966. Interception of satellite communications began at Menwith Hill as early as 1974, when the first of more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed.
In 1984, British Telecom and MoD staff completed a $25 million extension to Menwith Hill Station known as STEEPLEBUSH. The British government constructed new communications facilities and buildings for STEEPLEBUSH, worth £7.4 million. The expansion included a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m²) extension to the Operations Building and new generators to provide 5 megawatts of electrical power. The purpose of the new construction was to boost and cater for an 'expanded mission' of satellite surveillance. It also provides a new (satellite) earth terminal system to support the classified systems at the site. With another $17.2 million being spent on special monitoring equipment, this section of the Menwith Hill base alone cost almost $160 million dollars.
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
- List of RAF stations
- Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases
- United States Air Forces in Europe
- United States Air Force in the United Kingdom
[edit] External links
- Mark Thomas on Menwith Hill
- Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases
- Yorkshire CND's Menwith Hill Site
- The Battle of Menwith Hill (Signals Intelligence and the 9/11 Attacks)
- UK Secret Bases
- International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation article: The High Ground in Space
- RAF Menwith Hill on Google Maps
- RAF Menwith Hill on local.live.com (better resolution than Google Maps)
- http://www.commondreams.org/news2001/0202-02.htm February 2, 2001 press release
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