Simultaneously the national air raid siren system would be brought into service. Once an alert was initiated the national and local television and radio networks would break into transmissions and broadcast a warning (rather, the warning message would be transmitted from an emergency studio in BBC Broadcasting House in London). It was the responsibility of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Centre (UK RAOC) located at the Strike Command Operations Centre at High Wycombe to alert the nation to an imminent air attack. Main articles: United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and Royal Observer Corps The United States was the United Kingdom's most important military and technological partner, however, and its Strategic Air Command would have thirty minutes warning from the Fylingdales station. The British government was not the main beneficiary of BMEWS, given that it would only receive what Solly Zuckerman described in 1960 as "no more than 5 minutes warning time" of an attack. However, BMEWS would still play an important role in tracking and confirming the destination of any launches. In later years the first indication of any imminent attack would likely come from infrared detectors aboard the United States Defense Support Program (DSP's) satellites. There, powerful radars would track the inbound missiles and allow confirmation of targets. įrom the early 1960s, initial detection of attack would be provided primarily by the RAF BMEWS station at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire. By the 1980s, the warning would be given on the orders of a Warning Officer from the Home Office stationed at RAF High Wycombe. This was not for any practical or technical reason, but more a case of who would receive blame if a false alarm was given or an attack occurred without warning (which could have been as little as thirty seconds from launch to impact on a target). Throughout the Cold War, there was a conflict between the RAF and the Home Office over who was in charge of the warning system. I simply wanted to do research, but events wouldn't allow me to. It was known only to a very few people that I had been approached by the Chief of the Air Staff, who told me we had the only instrument in the world that could detect a Soviet missile. Lovell was angry at this arrangement, saying: Plainclothes Royal Air Force officers even worked alongside scientists, engineers and undergraduates with only the director, Bernard Lovell, and the Air Ministry knowing who they were. From 1958 to 1963, the radio telescope was used to give early warning of a Soviet attack. Early in the Cold War, Jodrell Bank was used to detect and track incoming missiles alongside its astronomical research remit. The warning would be initiated by the detection of inbound missiles and aircraft targeted at the United Kingdom.
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