RAF Ascension Island
| RAF Ascension Island | |||
 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Code | IATA: ASI, ICAO: FHAW | ||
| Territory | St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | ||
| Island | Ascension Island | ||
 | |||
| Owner | Ministry of Defence | ||
| Operator | Royal Air Force and United States Space Force | ||
| Location | 7°58’10"S, 14°23’38"W | ||
| Runway(s) | 10,020 feet (Asphalt) | ||
| Website | raf-ascension-island | ||
RAF Ascension Island (IATA: ASI, ICAO: FHAW), also known as Wideawake Airfield or Ascension Island Auxiliary Field, is a military airfield and facility located on Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The island is the northernmost of the territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The airfield is jointly operated by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Space Force, and formerly the United States Air Force.
The facility is home to a U.S. Space Force ground tracking station in support of the Eastern Range and rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
History
In 1939 Ascension became important as a high-frequency direction finding radio station covering trade routes.[1] Wideawake Airfield (named after a noisy colony of sooty terns nearby) was built by the US military in 1942 by arrangement with the British government. The airfield was built using a US task force.[2] The first aircraft to land on Ascension Island was a Fairey Swordfish from HMS Archer in June, 1942 and it went on to be used by more than 25,000 aircraft as a staging point during the war.[3]
A U.S. Air Force tracking station was officially activated as a satellite of Patrick Air Force Base in Florida on 25 June 1956.[4]
The airfield's runway was extended in the Autumn of 1980.[4] It was re-garrisoned by the Royal Air Force in 1982 and used extensively as a staging airfield during the Falklands War. A series of long-range bombing raids was carried out from there under the name Operation Black Buck.[5]
Target Tracking Radar Station
The Target Tracking Radar Station was a Nike Zeus test facility for tracking re-entry vehicles from Cape Canaveral missile launches. Built from 1960-1961 for anti-ballistic missile measurement, the "Golf Ball" radar antenna was on Cat Hill, and a collimation tower for radar calibration was towards English Bay. The facility is home to the Detachment 2 of the 45th Mission Support Group, part of the U.S. Space Force's 45th Space Wing. It operates a ground tracking station in support of the Eastern Range and rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida.[6]
The NASA Tracking Station at Devil's Ashpit and the Cable & Wireless Earth Station at Donkey Plain were built in the mid-1960s for space operations and communications, including the latter's use for transmitting "microwave borne data via the Early Bird Satellite back to the NASA facility at Andover, Maine".[7]
Operations
The station comes under the overall jurisdiction of the Commander British Forces South Atlantic Islands.[8]
The RAF airfield on Ascension Island is run on a day-to-day basis by around 19 RAF personnel, headed by a wing commander.[8]
RAF Ascension Island is normally the refuelling point for the Ministry of Defence's South Atlantic air bridge flights to RAF Mount Pleasant, on the Falkland Islands, from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom.[9]
Beginning in November 2017, the Ascension Island Government has contracted South African Carrier Airlink to conduct regularly scheduled charter flights between St Helena Airport and Ascension Island on a monthly basis. Flights are currently scheduled on the second week of every month, arriving at Ascension on Saturday afternoon and returning to St Helena on Sunday morning. The first of these flights are scheduled for 18 and 19 November 2017.[10] Additionally civilian passengers had been permitted on flights to and from RAF Brize Norton with reservations handled by AW Ship Management, with some customers doing package deals combined with the RMS St Helena, which travelled between St Helena and Cape Town in South Africa until the opening of St Helena Airport to passenger flights.[11][12]
Ascension serves as a diversion airport for ETOPS aircraft crossing the Atlantic. In January 2013, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 777-200LR en route from Johannesburg to Atlanta diverted to Ascension as a result of engine problems.[13]
The site is home to a high frequency radio station forming part of the Defence High Frequency Communications Service. The station is operated by Babcock International Group on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.[14]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about RAF Ascension Island) |
References
- ↑ Headrick, Daniel R. (2012). The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunications and International Politics, 1851-1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199930333. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UDXnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA248&lpg=.
- ↑ "Ascension Island - The Wide-Awake News". http://www.les-smith.com/Ascension-Island/WideAwakeNews.htm.
- ↑ "Ascension History". Mysterra Magazine. http://www.mysterra.org/webmag/ascension-island/history.html. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 'Air Force Bases': Robert Mueller, Office of Air Force History, Volume I: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982; page 464 ISBN 0-912799-53-6
- ↑ White, Rowland (2012). Vulcan 607. London: Bantam Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-593-07126-7. OCLC 941503520.
- ↑ "45th Mission Support Group – Fact Sheet". July 2017. http://www.patrick.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Article/329842/45th-mission-support-group/.
- ↑ "Avis Part Nineteen - A Time For Change". Ascension Island Heritage Society. https://heritage.org.ac/avis19.htm. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131203012525/http://www.bfbs.com/news/troops-south-atlantic-long-term-64980.html. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
- ↑ Eklund, Dylan (2015). "A rock and a hard place". The Official Royal Air Force Review 2015: 118. SSN 1758-9681.
- ↑ "Airlink-Ascension Island Government". 5 October 2017. http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac/government/travel-shipping/flights/airlink/. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ↑ "RMS St Helena Brochure". AW Ship Management. p. 18. https://rms-st-helena.com/manage/wp-content/uploads/RMS_St-Helena_Main_Brochure_MAR2015_web.pdf. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
- ↑ "RAF Flights Fly with the RAF and meet the RMS en route". AW Ship Management. http://rms-st-helena.com/raf-flights/. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
- ↑ Hradecky, Simon (10 January 2013). "Incident: Delta B772 over Atlantic on Jan 9th 2013, engine trouble". http://avherald.com/h?article=45bee9df&opt=0. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ↑ "Defence High Frequency Communications Service". Babcock International Group. 5 September 2012. http://www.hfindustry.com/meetings_presentations/presentation_materials/2012_sept_hfia/presentations/Babcock_DHFCS_NCS_Forest_Moor_Visit.pdf.