Fylingdales is one of five US Ballistic Missile Early Warning Radar stations across the world (the others are in Alaska, California and Massachusetts in the US and in Thule in Greenland). In 2003 Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister, gave permission for the base to become part of the US Missile Defence programme. Despite major public and political opposition on the grounds of international security and local health concerns, the upgrade process continued, without planning permission, and became operational for missile defence in 2007.
This joint US/RAF base is intended to be able to track enemy missiles and determine their intended trajectories, allowing interceptor missiles to be fired from other locations to knock them off track. So far, the system has proved to be ineffective: controlled tests have had minimal success in terms of shooting down missiles, but this has not deterred the US from pressing ahead.
Fylingdales has operated since 1963 as one of several ground-based radar facilities that provide early warning of ballistic missile launches against the US. It also operates as part of a global space-tracking network that continuously updates the US military on the position of satellites and other space objects. Data from Fylingdales is shared with the Ministry of Defence and NATO. The Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) has required software and hardware changes to increase the precision of the previous radar to track and target incoming missiles and provide detailed in formation about their trajectories to the US Missile Defence command centre. This upgrade enabled Fylingdales to be fully integrated into the US missile defence system in April 2010.
Fylingdales is therefore a significant command, control, communications and intelligence installation. Information gathered by the radar installation is fed directly to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. From there information is passed to the National Command authorities and to Headquarters, Strategic Air Command (STRATCOM) in Nevada.
In a war-time situation it would: provide the US President with information on what has and has not been attacked; monitor trajectories of both surveillance satellites and incoming ballistic missiles; allow prioritising and accurate response and targeting on "enemy" satellites and ballistic missiles.
