RAF Brawdy

RAF Brawdy is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located 6.3 miles (10.1 km) east of St Davids, Pembrokeshire and 9.8 miles (15.8 km) south west of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was operational between 1944 and 1992 being used by both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy before the site was turned over to the British Army and renamed Cawdor Barracks.

RAF Brawdy
Near Brawdy, Pembrokeshire in Wales
Amddiffynfa Y Gorllewin
(Welsh for 'The Western Fortification')
Aerial image of RAF Brawdy during 1944.
RAF Brawdy
Shown within Pembrokeshire
Coordinates51°53′01″N 005°07′26″W
TypeRoyal Air Force station
Site information
OwnerMinistry of Defence
OperatorRoyal Air Force
Royal Navy
Controlled byRAF Coastal Command
Fleet Air Arm
ConditionClosed
Site history
Built1944 (1944)
In use
  • 1944–1946 and 1974–1992 (RAF)
  • 1946–1971 (FAA)
FateTransferred to British Army in 1995 to become Cawdor Barracks.
Battles/warsSecond World War
Cold War
Airfield information
IdentifiersICAO: EGDA, WMO: 03603
Runways
Direction Length and surface
02/20 2,321 metres (7,615 ft) Asphalt
15/33 1,950 metres (6,398 ft) Asphalt
NoteAirfield no longer in use.

History

The Pembrokeshire base was officially opened on 2 February 1944 as a satellite station for the nearby RAF St Davids with No. 517 Squadron RAF moving in a day before with the Handley Page Halifax Mk V before changing to the Mk III in March 1945. The squadron moved to RAF Chivenor on 30 November 1945.[1] The next squadron to move in was 521 Squadron from December 1944 until May 1945 as a detachment operating the Boeing Fortress II (B-17F).[2] Between 2 February 1944 and 27 April 1946 595 Squadron aircraft may have been based here with a variety of aircraft as a detachment.[3]

Fleet Air Arm use
Sea Hawk F1s of 898 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Brawdy, 1954.

On 1 January 1946 the station was handed over to the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy and became Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Brawdy or HMS Goldcrest II. It was initially used as a Relief Landing Ground for RNAS Dale. After the closure of Dale, it was commissioned as HMS Goldcrest on 4 September 1952 and in March 1953 the first Hawker Sea Hawk entered service with 806 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Brawdy. From 1963 till 1971 Fairey Gannets and Hawker Hunters were based at Brawdy in 849 NAS and 738/759 respectively. The Gannets were primarily used in Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and the Hunters for advanced flying training including low-level Navigation, ground attack and air-to-air weapons training. The Royal Navy left in 1971 and the base was allocated to the Department of the Environment.[4]

The following squadrons were stationed here at various points during this period:[5]

Back to Royal Air Force control

In February 1974 the Royal Air Force returned with D Flight of 22 Squadron taking up residence with their Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 search and rescue helicopters.[6] In September of the same year No. 229 Operational Conversion Unit (later the Tactical Weapons Unit) joined D Flight having been forced to relocate after the closure of RAF Chivenor.[4]

The station was home to Hawker Hunter aircraft of the TWU, and the gate guardian at the base was initially a Supermarine Spitfire, this was replaced in the early 80s by Hawker Hunter FGA.9 (XE624). This airframe was subsequently sold to Steve Petch, a private collector.[7]

Between 1 September 1976 and July 1978 a detachment of 202 Squadron flying Whirlwind HAR.10s used the airfield.[8] By the late 1970s it operated BAe Hawk T.1A (234 and 79 Squadron).[4]

Closure of RAF station

As part of the rationalisation of advanced and tactical weapons training, flying ceased at Brawdy on 31 August 1992. A small number of RAF personnel remained including No. 202 Squadron and their Westland Sea Kings, which eventually left in July 1994.[9][10]

51°52′15.3″N 005°08′13.8″W

Naval Facility Brawdy. An entrance to RAF Brawdy is just out of view to the left.

In 1974 Naval Facility Brawdy was established adjacent to Royal Air Force Station Brawdy as the terminus of new Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) arrays covering the eastern Atlantic. After commissioning on 5 April 1974 NAVFAC Brawdy became the first "super NAVFAC" with some four hundred U.S. and United Kingdom military and civilian personnel assigned. In 1985 a new type of fixed surveillance system, the Fixed Distributed System (FDS), test array was terminated at the facility. The facility was decommissioned 1 October 1995 after its arrays had been "remoted" and its equipment moved to the Joint Maritime Facility, St Mawgan, Cornwall.[11][12]

Cawdor Barracks
Main article: Cawdor Barracks

Brawdy was transferred to the British Army in 1995 and became Cawdor Barracks, the army's main electronic warfare base.[4][13] The name originated from the local Earls of Cawdor (who owned the Stackpole Estate).

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References

Citations
  1. Jefford 2001, p. 95.
  2. Jefford 2001, p. 96.
  3. Jefford 2001, p. 97.
  4. "RAF Brawdy". Forces War Records. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  5. "Brawdy". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  6. Jefford 2001, p. 32.
  7. "Cold War Jets Collection". Archived from the original on 17 June 2001. Retrieved 31 January 2007.
  8. Jefford 2001, p. 68.
  9. March, Peter R. (1998). Brace by Wire to Fly-By-Wire – 80 Years of the Royal Air Force 1918–1998. RAF Fairford: Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund Enterprises. p. 158. ISBN 1-899808-06-X.
  10. "Brawdy". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust UK. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  11. "Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) History 1950 - 2010". IUSS/CAESAR Alumni Association. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  12. "Naval Facility Brawdy April 1974 - October 1995". United States Navy. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  13. "14 Regiment Royal Signals". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 1 June 2014.

Bibliography
  • Jefford, C.G. RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84037-141-2.
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