RAF Brawdy

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]

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]

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]

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).

• 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.