RAF Oakhanger

RAF Oakhanger
Near Bordon, East Hampshire in England
Satellite dish at Oakhanger
Ultra Tellurem Dico (Latin for 'I speak beyond the Earth')^[1]
RAF Oakhanger Location within Hampshire
Coordinates	51°6′55.31″N 0°53′36.5″W / 51.1153639°N 0.893472°W / 51.1153639; -0.893472
Type	Military satellite communications station
Area	55 hectares^[2]
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force (1966–2003) Paradigm Secure Communications (2003–2013) Airbus Defence and Space (2013 – present)
Condition	Closed
Site history
Built	1966 (1966)
In use	1966–2003 (2003)
Fate	Operation of station transferred to the private sector under a private finance initiative contract.

RAF Oakhanger was a Royal Air Force station in Hampshire split over three operational sites; with accommodation in nearby Bordon.^[3] The main site and operations centre is located near the village of Oakhanger, the two other sites being nearby. The parent station for administrative purposes was RAF Odiham.

History

RAF Oakhanger was the home of No. 1001 Signal Unit,^[4] responsible for supporting satellite communications services for the British Armed Forces worldwide. The unit was made up of four sub-units: Space Operations, Ground Operations, Telemetry and Control, and Support; with subordinate detachments based at RAF Rudloe Manor, RAF Colerne and RAF Defford. Command and Control of the system was conducted from Oakhanger, with a planning unit based at Rudloe Manor, co-located with No. 1 Signal Unit and Controller Defence Communication Network. The Colerne and Defford detachments provided a ground anchoring capability for the communications spacecraft. The Defford detachment was managed by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, later QinetiQ.

Space Squadron was responsible for flying a constellation of Skynet satellites, up to the fourth iteration of six space vehicles which supported Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force units. The space vehicles were controlled on a permanent basis from Oakhanger, with command and control traffic being passed from one of the three ground stations. Space Squadron also controlled the flight of space vehicles on behalf of NATO, with an earth station at the nearby NATO ground terminal. The constellation comprised geosynchronous satellites, providing Earth coverage and higher-power coverage over Northern Europe.

Ground services was responsible for routing traffic via the space vehicles, from a number of locations in the United Kingdom, to either stationary ground terminals such as Germany, Cyprus, Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands, or tactical ground terminals, mounted in ships or vehicles. Tactical terminals were operated by the Tactical Communications Wing, 30 Signal Regiment, 16 Signal Regiment, 249 (AMF(L)) Signal Squadron, 264 (SAS) Signal Squadron, or the Royal Marines Signal Squadrons.^[5]

Current use

Support to British military satellite communications was outsourced to EADS Astrium's subsidiary company—Paradigm Secure Communications—in 2003, as a Private Finance Initiative. Paradigm Secure Communications is now known as Airbus Defence and Space.

RAF Oakhanger is now used to support the Skynet 5 constellation and the United States Space Force's Satellite Control Network. A very small contingent from the U.S. 23rd Space Operations Squadron are stationed at RAF Oakhanger who with MOD civilians and contractors provide support to over 175 U.S. and allied satellites, the only site where U.S. satellites are supported by non-U.S. personnel.^[6]

References

^ Pine, L.G. (1983). A dictionary of mottoes (1 ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-7100-9339-4.
^ "Defence Estates Development Plan (DEDP) 2009 - Annex A" (PDF). GOV.UK. Ministry of Defence. 3 July 2009. p. 34. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
^ "RAF Oakhanger". Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
^ "Skynet 4 - Print".
^ Kiralfy, R.J.C., Current issues for RAF Oakhanger and Number 1001 Signals Unit, Military Satellite Communications II (Ref. No: 1997/322), IEE Coilloquium on , vol., no., pp.5/1,5/6, 18 Nov 1997 URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/659612
^ Tracy, William (18 July 2017). "Oakhanger GSU, UK military support AFSCN". CSMNG. Archived from the original on 23 September 2017.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to RAF Oakhanger.

Forces War Records -- RAF Oakhanger

Royal Air Force

Ministry of Defence

formations
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units	Commands Groups Wings Squadrons Flights Conversion units Operational Training units Schools / Training units Ferry units Glider units Misc units
stations	Active Former Satellite Landing Grounds
Regiment	Wings Squadrons Flights

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Leadership

Oversight	House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces subcommittee Senate Committee on Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee

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Field commands	Space Futures Command Space Operations Command Commander Space Systems Command Commander Space Training and Readiness Command Commander
Component Field Commands	United States Space Forces Central United States Space Forces Europe and Africa United States Space Forces Indo-Pacific United States Space Forces Korea United States Space Forces – Space
Deltas	Space Delta 1 Space Delta 2 Space Delta 3 Space Delta 4 Space Delta 5 Space Delta 6 Space Delta 7 Space Delta 8 Space Delta 9 Space Delta 10 Space Delta 11 Space Delta 12 Space Delta 13 Space Delta 15 Space Delta 18 Space Delta 21 Space Delta 23 Space Delta 26 Space Launch Delta 30 Space Launch Delta 45 PNT IMD (P) Space Base Delta 1 Space Base Delta 2 Space Base Delta 3
Squadrons	1st Delta Operations 319th Combat Training 328th Weapons 392d Combat Training 533rd Training 21st Operations Support 15th Space Surveillance 18th Space Defense 19th Space Defense 20th Space Surveillance 3rd Combat Training 4th EW 5th EW 16th EW 23rd EW 2nd Space Warning 3rd satellite Communications 5th Space Warning 6th Space Warning 7th Space Warning 10th Space Warning 11th Space Warning 12th Space Warning 13th Space Warning 55th Combat Training 21st Space Operations 22nd Space Operations 23rd Space Operations 62nd Cyberspace 63rd Cyberspace 64th Cyberspace 65th Cyberspace 68th Cyberspace 69th Cyberspace 645th Cyberspace 71st ISR 72nd ISR 73rd ISR 74th ISR 75th ISR 76th ISR 1st Space Operations 2nd Space Operations 3rd Space Operations 4th Space Operations 10th Space Operations 53rd Space Operations 527th Space Aggressor 1st Test and Evaluation 3rd Test and Evaluation 17th Test and Evaluation 25th Space Range 2nd Space Launch 5th Space Launch 1st Range Operations NSSI
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Space Force Bases	Buckley Los Angeles Patrick Peterson Schriever Vandenberg
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and training

History and
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Former wings and deltas	21st Space Wing 50th Space Wing 460th Space Wing Space Training and Readiness Delta (Provisional)

This page was last edited on 3 March 2024, at 21:21

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History

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See also

References

External links