Monument record BAW 185 - RAF Bawdsey, GCI (B) ROTOR Station 'PKD' and Bloodhound Missile Site. (CW)

In 1950 Bawdsey was selected to become part of the ROTOR program, a program to update Britains radar cover after WW2. It consisted of many sites with huge underground bunkers to withstand conventional bombing. In 1958 an AMES Type 80 Mk3 was installed with 2 AN/FPS-6 US made radars. Bawdsey was manned by 144 Signals Unit from 11 group and together with 6 other stations in the Eastern Sector it offered cover from 30 minutes before dawn to 30 minutes after sunset as there was no night cover(S1).
The site of Bawdsey radar station built in the early 1950s as part of the Rotor programme to modernise the United Kingdom's radar defences. This was a replacement station for the Chain Home station at Bawdsey, located to the south of this site. The Rotor station was fitted with a Type 7 Mark 3 radar head for local search and control, two Type 14 (Mark 8 and Mark 9) plan positioning radar heads, four Type 13 Mark 6 and two Type 13 Mark 7 height finder radar heads, and three Type 54 Mark 3 radar heads for search and control with no IFF (Identification Friend or Foe). The radar heads were mounted on plinths and 25 feet gantries, apart from the Type 54 arrays that were mounted on 200 feet towers. The site was equipped with a guardhouse designed to resemble a bungalow, which gave access to a two-storey, underground R3 operations block. The R3 bunker was completed in 1954. Newly developed Type 80 radar and its associated modulator building was installed in 1958, with two AN/FPS 6 height finding radars. By 1963 Bawdsey had become a Master Radar Station, but in June 1964 it switched to operating as a satellite station to RAF Neatishead. It resumed Master Radar Station status in 1966 until 1974, after a fire damaged Neatishead's control centre. Bawdsey closed in 1975 and in 1977 features of the Rotor station were demolished, including plinths, towers and the Type 80 modulator building (S3).
Site of national importance the Cold War Bloodhound Mark II Missile Site survives intact apart from the removal of the missiles and their associated mobile equipment.(S2)
In 1979 Bawdsey reopened as a Bloodhound Mk2 surface to air (SAM) missile site. The guardhouse also remains in derelict condition, and is still attached to the R3 bunker via an access tunnel. The R3 bunker is disused and has been sealed shut (S3)
The Bloodhound Missile Site is located within the perimeter of the early 1950s Radar Station of RAF Bawdsey. The missile section became active in July 1979 as C Flight of 85 Squadron and remained operational until 31 May 1990. The Flight was divided into two sections, each of which was equipped with six fixed concrete missile pads; the remainder of its equipment was semi-portable. The missiles were controlled from Launch Control Posts (LCPs), set on hardstandings and surrounded by an protective earthwork bank, they were connected to the Target Illuminating Radar by cables. Initially the Flight was equipped with two Type 87 radars mounted on angular steel plinths, colloquially known as `Daleks'. In 1988 these were replaced by two smaller air-portable Type 86 radars. These were mounted on top of 4.26 metre steel gantries built over the `Daleks'. Some of the earlier Radar Station Buildings were reused by the Bloodhound unit, including the Guard House (which retained its original function), an Operations Room was placed in the R3 bunker and the 1950s Type 80 radar modulator building was converted for use as a workshop. Ready Use Stores (containing spare missiles) were simple concrete hardstandings. Other structures on site include, buildings for an RAF dog section, a store, a garage, a hut of undertermined function, an explosive fitment bay, an office and a stand-by set house (S4).