Site Records

Site Name: Wattisham Mk. 2 Bloodhound Missile Site

Wattisham Airfield
Wattisham
Suffolk
OS Grid Ref: TL035525

Sub Brit site visit 25th July 2006

[Source: Nick Catford]

At the time of writing all the Bloodhound Mark II stations a largely intact. The Wattisham site lies on the east side of Wattisham Airfield within its own fenced compound with the only access through the Army Air Corps station. It is bounded on the north and west side by the airfield, on the south side by the old WW2 bomb dump (still within the airfield perimeter) and by farm land on the east side.

At present all the buildings are still standing but none of them are currently used with the exception of the station headquarters which is now the base of the Wattisham detachment of the Suffolk Army Cadet Force and 1287 (Wattisham) Sqn Air Training Corps. Other buildings are locked or sealed.

Photo:View from the top of the southern radar tower. In the foreground is a static water tank and to the rear left - right, generator building, radar tower, radar maintenance workshop and revetted sub station.
Photo by Nick Catford

The entrance to the site is on the west side a short distance to the west of 22 Squadron's search and rescue base. There is a brick picket post just inside the entrance after which the road splits to the two missile sections.

Type 86 radar - click to enlarge

The road to the northern missile section passes the station headquarters which includes an operation room and alongside it the fire station which still has a siren on the roof.

The two steel radar towers are adjacent to the two arms of the road each with a standby generator building alongside and a radar maintenance workshop nearby. There is also a static water rank, a semi-revetted sub-station and a third standby generator block close by.

There are several black portacabins on the site, their purpose is unknown. Beyond the two towers are the two groups of six eight-sided concrete launch pads. An abandoned Scout helicopter is sitting on one of the pads. One hundred yards to the east of the pads is the large arming shed, revetted on three sides. Close to this there is a second static water tank and a Norcon pillbox.

Photo:The revetted arming shed. One of the Type 86 radar towers can be seen in the background and to its right the revetment around the sub-station.
Photo by Nick Catford

Click here for a brief history of RAF Wattisham

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