Cawdor Barracks is a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

installation located east of

St Davids St Davids or St David's (, , "David's house”) is a cathedral city in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It lies on the River Alun and is part of the community of St Davids and the Cathedral Close. It is the resting place of Saint David, Wales's ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

and south west of

Fishguard Fishguard (, meaning "Mouth of the River Gwaun") is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a population of 3,400 (rounded to the nearest 100) as of the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. Modern Fishguard consists of two parts, Lowe ...

, Pembrokeshire,

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It was an operational airfield between 1944 and 1992, being used by both the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(when it was known as

RAF Brawdy Royal Air Force Brawdy, or more simply RAF Brawdy, is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located east of St Davids, Pembrokeshire and south west of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was operational between 1944 and 1992; it was used ...

) and by Royal Navy's

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

(RNAS Brawdy), before closing in 1992. The site was reactivated in 1995 by the

and became Cawdor Barracks, home to 14 Signal Regiment, the army's electronic warfare unit.

History

The

station at Brawdy officially opened on 2 February 1944 as a satellite station for the

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually Aerial bomb, bombs) and longest range (aeronautics), range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy ...

aircraft of nearby

RAF St Davids Royal Air Force St Davids, or more simply RAF St Davids, is a former Royal Air Force station, near the city of St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales, in the Community (Wales), community of Solva. It opened in the late summer of 1943, for RAF Coastal ...

Royal Naval Air Station Brawdy

On 1 January 1946 the station was handed over to the

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

and became Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS Brawdy), initially used as a Relief Landing Ground for RNAS Dale located near

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was ...

. It was commissioned as HMS ''Goldcrest'' on 4 September 1952 and in March 1953 the first

Hawker Sea Hawk The Hawker Sea Hawk is a British single-seat jet day fighter formerly of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the air branch of the Royal Navy (RN), built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its design originat ...

entered service with

806 Naval Air Squadron 806 Naval Air Squadron (806 NAS), sometimes alluded to as 806 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was most recently active with the Hawker Sea Hawk between March 1953 and December ...

. From 1963 till 1971 Brawdy was home to

Fairey Gannet The Fairey Gannet is a carrier-borne aircraft that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed for the Royal Navy, being the first fixed-wing aircraft to combine both the search an ...

s and

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet propulsion, jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly dev ...

s in the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and advanced flying training roles respectively. The Royal Navy left in 1971 and the base was allocated to the

Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

RAF Brawdy

In February 1974, the Royal Air Force returned to Brawdy with 'D' Flight of No. 22 Squadron taking up residence with their Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 search and rescue helicopters. In September of the same year, No. 229 Operational Conversion Unit, later the Tactical Weapons Unit (TWU), relocated with the

s after the closure of

RAF Chivenor Royal Air Force Chivenor, or more simply RAF Chivenor, is a former Royal Air Force station located on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nearest towns are Barnstaple and Braunton. Originally a ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. By the late 1970s, the TWU operated British Aerospace Hawk T1A Squadron.

Transfer to the British Army

As part of the rationalisation of advanced and tactical weapons training, flying ceased at Brawdy on 31 August 1992. A small number of RAF personnel remained including No. 202 Squadron and their

Westland Sea King The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome eng ...

s, which eventually left in July 1994. Brawdy was transferred to the

in 1995 and became Cawdor Barracks, the Army's main electronic warfare base. The name originated from the local Earls of

Cawdor Cawdor () is a village and parish in the Highland council area, Scotland. The village is south-southwest of Nairn and east of Inverness. The village is in the Historic County of Nairnshire. History The village is the location of Cawdor ...

(who owned the

Stackpole Estate The Stackpole Estate () is located between the villages of Stackpole and Bosherston in Pembrokeshire, Wales, within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is situated within the community of Stackpole and Castlemartin. Consisting of of far ...

). Cawdor Barracks is currently home to the 14 Signal Regiment ("14 Sigs"), the British Army's electronic warfare unit.

Units

Units based include: *

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

(

1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade The Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group is a formation of the British Army that commands the Army's miniature UAS, tactical UAS, counter-intelligence and reach back intelligence capabilities, the Specialist Group Military Intell ...

) **14 Signal Regiment (Electronic Warfare) ***223 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***226 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***237 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***245 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***Operations Support Squadron

Future

In November 2016, the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

(MOD) announced that Cawdor Barracks would close in 2024. This was later extended to 2028. In December 2023, the Ministry of Defence announced plans for Cawdor to host one of three Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability sites, a program between the UK, US and Australia. The site is due to be active by the end of the decade.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Airliners.net Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyAir Britain Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyIvor "Taff" Davies Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyJet Photos.net Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyXE624.org – Home of the ex-RAF Brawdy Gate Guard Hunter FGA.9
{{Royal Air Force Buildings and structures in Pembrokeshire Installations of the British Army Barracks in Wales