RAF Spadeadam

History

RAF Spadeadam is an active Royal Air Force station, close to the border of Northumbria. Covering 9,000 acres, it is the largest RAF base in the United Kingdom. It is currently used as an Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, to train the Royal Air Force and NATO allies. It is also the only mainland UK location where aircrews can drop practice bombs. Spadeadam has always been a remote and uninhabited part of England, until 1955 when the Intermediate Ballistic Missile Test Centre was constructed for the Blue Streak missile project - a project that was launched to develop a nuclear deterrent missile. The RAF took over the base in 1976 and under their control it became the Electronic Warfare Tactics Range in 1977. The range itself contains ground-based electronic equipment, including some that was manufactured in the Soviet Union, that create simulated threats to train aircrews. Across the site there are different real and dummy targets which include an airfield, a village, portable buildings, tanks, aircraft, anti-aircraft guns and vehicle convoys. The site was originally used in secret as part of Britain’s Cold War nuclear weapons programme. This information was only made public in 2004 when tree-felling work uncovered the remains of abandoned excavations for a missile silo. Since then, the RAF and English Heritage have attempted to survey the site and record what was so secret about the place, because there are no official records or plans for the base still in existence from the Cold War period. What is known, however, is that Spadeadam was chosen as a launch site because of its isolation, access to road connections and the surrounding environment which supported it with plenty of water. It is thought that Spadeadam was meant to be one of sixty launch sites across the UK, but most of these were never built. This report is based on the practice airfield area of RAF Spadeadam. It is hidden away in a small forest and completely surrounded by a peat bog. The airfield itself comprises a triangular shaped runway which features a number of aircraft (mostly MIG fighter jets), military vehicles and anti-aircraft guns.

The largest collection of planes was this row of six Dassault Mystere bombers, introduced in the 1950s and primarily used by the French. There were two more decaying separately.

Next to each plane and across from them, a bunch of what are either fuel storage containers or mock missiles.

A fuel truck.

Looking down at the second half of fighter jets from atop one.

Another Dassault Mystere, a bit more battered.

A trio of American Lockhead TT-3's, that were nicknamed 'Shooting Stars.'

The helicopter in question is a Mil Mi-24 Attack Chopper, with capacity for eight passengers, a streamlined body and retractable undercarriage landing gear for reduced drag.

To finish with - captured just as the dying sun created imposing colours in the sky.