Spadeadam Waste (remote and largely uninhabited until the mid 1950's) contains much of interest for wildlife enthusiasts eg. all three species of British newt.
It is also the home of RAF Spadeadam
RAF Spadeadam is home to the UK's Electronic Warfare Tactics Range including an airfield (well, it's a dummy airfield) numerous electronic threats (active and passive, real and emulated). Other equipment is deployed around the area to give it a more realistic threat appearance visually. It's used by NATO forces as well as the RAF. It provides a remote capability as well (some of which was deployed near the coast on the day of my visit).
The remnants of a major part of Britain's early rocket testing infrastructure for the Blue Streak project is here (some parts are used for the convenience of the buildings /concrete). There are also private companies carrying out various resident within the area.
The RAF have plenty of info online about current use and there are plenty of pages about British rocket development online and I see no point in cutting and pasting what is already out there.
Rather than fill up a page with photos of newts and raptors this will be a random selection of images of concrete and steel. It will be picture heavy as I've had to cut down the 284 images that I kept from the day to something more manageable on here.
SA-8 Ghecko (Russian 9K33 Osa 'wasp') - RAF Spadeadam gate-guard
Main EWTR control centre at Berry Hill
SA-2 emitter/receiver head
Electrical and telephone remains at Prior Lancy
Old Thunderbird missile for visual realism
T1 emitter/receiver head (can emulate SA-2, SA-3 etc)
American self-propelled howitzer
Ghecko hiding
Looking down one of the dummy runways. These are surprisingly realistic when seen from the air
There are aircraft and ground equipment on and around the airfield to add realism
Remaining photos are around the C3 Blue Streak Test Stand
It is also the home of RAF Spadeadam
RAF Spadeadam is home to the UK's Electronic Warfare Tactics Range including an airfield (well, it's a dummy airfield) numerous electronic threats (active and passive, real and emulated). Other equipment is deployed around the area to give it a more realistic threat appearance visually. It's used by NATO forces as well as the RAF. It provides a remote capability as well (some of which was deployed near the coast on the day of my visit).
The remnants of a major part of Britain's early rocket testing infrastructure for the Blue Streak project is here (some parts are used for the convenience of the buildings /concrete). There are also private companies carrying out various resident within the area.
The RAF have plenty of info online about current use and there are plenty of pages about British rocket development online and I see no point in cutting and pasting what is already out there.
Rather than fill up a page with photos of newts and raptors this will be a random selection of images of concrete and steel. It will be picture heavy as I've had to cut down the 284 images that I kept from the day to something more manageable on here.
SA-8 Ghecko (Russian 9K33 Osa 'wasp') - RAF Spadeadam gate-guard
Main EWTR control centre at Berry Hill
SA-2 emitter/receiver head
Electrical and telephone remains at Prior Lancy
Old Thunderbird missile for visual realism
T1 emitter/receiver head (can emulate SA-2, SA-3 etc)
American self-propelled howitzer
Ghecko hiding
Looking down one of the dummy runways. These are surprisingly realistic when seen from the air
There are aircraft and ground equipment on and around the airfield to add realism
Remaining photos are around the C3 Blue Streak Test Stand