Dates: 1962 -

RAF Fylingdales is a British Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its Motto is "Vigilamus" (translates to "We are watching"). It is a radar base and part of the United States-controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). As part of intelligence-sharing arrangements between the United States and United Kingdom

The station was built by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1962, and was maintained by RCA (Great Britain), now Serco Group plc. RAF Fylingdales consisted of three 40-metre-diameter ’golfballs’ or geodesic domes (radomes) containing mechanically steered radar. It became a local tourist attraction as a result. Coach tours to the nearby coastal town of Whitby drove past the site, at which point drivers would typically switch the radio on and allow passengers to listen to the interference caused by the radomes.

Between 1989 and 1992, Raytheon, the US defence contractor, completed a contract that saw the domes replaced by the current tetrahedron (’pyramid’) structure, housing the Active Electronically Scanned Arrays or AESA (phased array) radar.

Forces Reunited Forum Posts involving RAF Fylingdales

" Ian and Syd A workman who was helping construct the Golfballs at RAF Fylingdales met a man in uniform on the road leading out of Fylingdales. This man is supposed to have said to the workman that "what they were constructing would never be used in anger. But what comes after it will be used in ..."

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" RAF Fylingdales, as part the worldwide Space Surveillance Network, normally track objects in space that are 10 cms or larger and to a range of 3000 miles. Before Tuesday the Station was busy as always with constant tracking of the 3322 active satellites and the 9698 items of debris in various ..."

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" The MoD has taken to the PFI concept like ducks to water.  Here is a list, as extracted from the MoD Annual Reports and Accounts Volume 2 for 2008-2009 so it’s not quite up to date. It is just under £1.5billion, off balance sheet. Off Balance Sheet Training, Administration and ..."

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