No. 1 Air Control Centre (also known as 1 ACC) is a deployable mobile command and control unit of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) a ...

that is currently based at

RAF Scampton Royal Air Force Scampton or RAF Scampton is a Royal Air Force station located adjacent to the A15 road near to the village of Scampton, Lincolnshire, and north-west of the city of Lincoln, England. RAF Scampton stands on the site of a Firs ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. The unit acts in conjunction with the

Control and Reporting Centre A Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) is according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff publication 1.02 defined as – ''A subordinated air control element of the tactical air control centre for which radar control and warning operations are conducted wi ...

(CRC) at

RAF Boulmer Royal Air Force Boulmer or RAF Boulmer is a Royal Air Force station near Alnwick in Northumberland, England, and is home to Aerospace Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) Force Command, Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) Boulmer. The School ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land o ...

, but also detaches staff to overseas locations when the Royal Air Force is engaged in operations. Some of these postings are permanent, such as in the

Falklands Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

and at Cyprus. 1 ACC's remit is to protect the United Kingdom's, and deployed airspace, from hostile aircraft.

History

No. 1 Air Control Centre started out as No. 9 Signals Unit (9 SU) at

RAF Rattlesden Royal Air Force Station Rattlesden or more simply RAF Rattlesden is a former Royal Air Force station located south east of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. History USAAF use Rattlesden airfield was built in 1942 as a Class A bomber airf ...

in Suffolk in 1964. A year later it was renamed as No. 1 Air Control Centre, and remained at Rattlesden. In 1967, it moved to

RAF Wattisham Royal Air Force Station Wattisham or more simply RAF Wattisham is a former Royal Air Force station located in East Anglia just outside the village of Wattisham, south of Stowmarket in Suffolk, England. During the Cold War it was a major front ...

, where it remained until 1979 until it moved to

Nancekuke Remote Radar Head Portreath or RRH Portreath is an air defence radar station operated by the Royal Air Force. It has a coastal location at Nancekuke Common, approximately north east of the village of Portreath in Cornwall, England. Its radar ...

in Cornwall (later RAF Portreath and then

RRH Portreath Remote Radar Head Portreath or RRH Portreath is an air defence radar station operated by the Royal Air Force. It has a coastal location at Nancekuke Common, approximately north east of the village of Portreath in Cornwall, England. Its radar ...

). Between 2006 and 2009, No. 1 ACC was deployed to Afghanistan on

Operation Herrick Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assi ...

. In 2008, plans were announced in Parliament to relocate 1 ACC from

RAF Kirton in Lindsey Royal Air Force Kirton in Lindsey or more simply RAF Kirton in Lindsey is a former Royal Air Force station located north of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. It's an RAF habit (inherited from the RFC) to name its bases after the nearest rail ...

and the CRC from Scampton to

RAF Coningsby Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located south-west of Horncastle, and north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and h ...

in Lincolnshire. Whilst this move did not proceed as intended, 1 ACC moved to RAF Scampton in 2012 and the technical site at RAF Kirton in Lindsey was sold off, although the domestic site was retained for RAF personnel. In 2018, the RAF announced that RAF Scampton would close by 2022, which would involve moving all units out of the station to other locations. 1 ACC will move before the station closes to

. Staffing of the unit fluctuates with demand and role, but in 2015, the number of personnel at the unit was around 220.

Role

The main role of 1 ACC is to provide deployed air control operations, both in the United Kingdom and on deployed operations worldwide. Whilst working in the United Kingdom, 1 ACC feeds into the CRC at RAF Boulmer and helps to protect UK airspace from hostile aircraft.

Locations

Permanent locations

Current

, (2013 – present) *Mount Olympus (Cyprus) *Mount Alice (Falklands) *Byron Heights (Falklands) *Mount Kent (Falklands)

Historical

, (1965 – 1967) *

, (1967 – 1979) *

RAF Portreath Remote Radar Head Portreath or RRH Portreath is an air defence radar station operated by the Royal Air Force. It has a coastal location at Nancekuke Common, approximately north east of the village of Portreath in Cornwall, England. Its radar ( ...

, (1979 – 1982) *

, (1995 – 2005) *

, (2005 – 2013)

Short deployments

*Zambia, (1967) *Exercise

Saif Sareea II Exercise Saif Sareea ( ar, سيف سريع ) is a series of military exercises undertaken by the United Kingdom and Oman which first began in 1986 and most recently took place in 2018. Saif Sareea 1 Exercise Saif Sareea 1 was the first exercise h ...

, (2001) *

Operation Telic Operation Telic (Op TELIC) was the codename under which all of the United Kingdom's military operations in Iraq were conducted between the start of the invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 and the withdrawal of the last remaining British forces on ...

, (2004) *

, (2006–2009)

References

{{Royal Air Force Military units and formations of the Royal Air Force Military units and formations disestablished in 1982 Military units and formations established in 1995