MOD/USAF Radio relay site?

[wastelandwander]

I was driving past this on Sunday, and this caught my eye, not far from Watlington ROC post in Christmas Common. It Has hardened blast doors on the ground structures

Wikimapia Location

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.6366218&lon=-0.9681541&z=19&l=0&m=b


According to the parliament website, it was sold to RAF Croughton, RAF Croughton handles a 1/3 of all US military communications in Europe.

 

[species8472]

Nice find bud,

 

[Munchh]

Interesting find.

"U.S. Microwave Radio Relay Sites to Close in United Kingdom

The Department of Defense announced today that it is closing 10 microwave radio relay sites in the United Kingdom. The sites are: Barkway, Botley Hill Farms, Bovington, Caldecott (also known as Chelveston), Christmas Common, Cold Blow, Daventry, Dunkirk, Swingate, and Uxbridge.
This closure is not related to the U.S. Global Posture review, it is simply a cost saving measure. The Defense Information Systems Agency determined that DoD could save $1 million annually by using commercial communications instead of continuing to maintain and upgrade the existing sites.
Operations at these sites ceased in December 2003 and they will be officially closed by the end of December. Since the sites are unmanned, there is no expected impact to military or civilian jobs as a result of the closures.
As with all stationing actions, the United States has coordinated with host nation officials at all levels prior to this public announcement."

From here - http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=7539

 

[Krypton]

ooooh i love that sign!

 

[godzilla73]

Yep - most of these had dual roles with USAAF and MOD that ran various projects such as Ace High and Mold. Botley Hill was another one with a configuration like this. Your lucky to have seen this in this state as most of them are now either demolished or in the process of being so

 

[wastelandwander]

Yep - most of these had dual roles with USAAF and MOD that ran various projects such as Ace High and Mold. Botley Hill was another one with a configuration like this. Your lucky to have seen this in this state as most of them are now either demolished or in the process of being so

Thanks for the info! I expect this one wont be around for much longer either