NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Menwith Hill

RAF Menwith Hill is an intelligence-gathering base located approximately eight miles west of the town of Harrogate, UK, 54°00′N 1°41′W. Founded in the 1950s to monitor High Frequency radio communications, it has been operated since 1966 by the US National Security Agency (NSA), and has grown to become the world's biggest spy base outside the US. Nominally a British Royal Air Force facility, only physical security and UK liaison functions are carried out by MOD personnel, the vast majority of the staff being British GCHQ and American NSA employees as well as U.S. military personnel. The base is known as the NSA field station F83. Menwith Hill aerial photo. ... Menwith Hill aerial photo. ... Map sources for Harrogate at grid reference SE3055 Harrogate is a town in North Yorkshire, England. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-BÃ©del Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... NSA redirects here. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Main Building - The Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, Westminster, London Tri-service badge of the UK armed forces The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and the headquarters of the UK military. ... The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (previously named the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS)) is the main British intelligence service providing signals intelligence (SIGINT). ...

Up until 2003 the base had a Royal Navy equivalent nearby, HMS Forest Moor. This has since been decomissioned as a Naval base and is now run by civilian contractors with MOD assistance. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ... HMS Forest Moor was a Royal Navy land base. ...

A Menwith Hill radome.

The base is highly recognisable by its several dozen radomes ('golf balls'), each containing a satellite dish. Many of these are used for signals interception from communications satellites and are commonly thought to be part of the ECHELON system. Other parts of the site are thought to be used by the Space Based Infrared System employed by the US National Missile Defence program. The latter use of the base, alongside the joint US/UK radar station at RAF Fylingdales was particularly controversial. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1414x1962, 441 KB) Summary Radome at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, November 2005. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1414x1962, 441 KB) Summary Radome at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, November 2005. ... Radomes at the Cryptologic Operations Center, Misawa, Japan. ... Radomes at the Cryptologic Operations Center, Misawa, Japan. ... Antenna 4 (through the wire) in former Echelon intelligence gathering station at Silvermine, Cape Peninsula, South Africa. ... A payload launch vehicle carrying a prototype exoatmospheric kill vehicle is launched from Meck Island at the Kwajalein Missile Range on Dec. ... RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force radar station in North Yorkshire. ...

The base has attracted significant levels of protest from anti-Nuclear and pro-Peace groups. Some groups have, in an effort to disrupt the activities of the base, staged infiltrations and vandalism to the various radomes.

External links

The Menwith Hill site, hosted by CND
Block The Base - Protest site from 19th March 2004
Intelligence Resource Program of Federation of American Scientists
AIA takes command of Menwith Hill Station
PhD Thesis about SIGINT activities at Menwith Hill and other UK sites
Big Brother Capabilities in an Online World. State Surveillance in the Internet (academic dissertation)
UK Secret Bases

Categories: Royal Air Force stations | Telecommunications

Results from FactBites:

NSA echelon system (2347 words)
	Although high technology stations such as Menwith Hill are primarily intended to monitor international communications, according to US experts their capability can be, and has been, turned inwards on domestic traffic.
	Menwith Hill, in particular, has been accused by a former employee of gross corruption and the monitoring of domestic calls.
	While working at Menwith Hill, Newsham is reported to have said that she was able to listen through earphones to telephone calls being monitored at the base.

MENWITH HILL TOURS - What You'll Find There (744 words)
	The main operational activity of Menwith Hill is the collection of signals intelligence from national and international communications systems for the USA.
	Menwith Hill was first established to intercept traditional radio signals, but this is now only a tiny part of its activities.
	Menwith Hill controls 56 satellites and a series of radomes, known as the RUNWAY running east and west across the south edge of Menwith, are believed to be involved in downloading information from the geosynchronous satellites known as VORTEX or MAGNUM and from larger, more advanced systems such as those known as ORION.

More results at FactBites »

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