MOD Hebrides is a

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 ...

site in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, operated by

QinetiQ QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

. It consists of a deep sea range for complex weapons trials and an inner range for ground-based air defence test and evaluation. It has also been known as the Hebrides Guided Weapon Range and the South Uist Missile Range.

History

In the north west of

South Uist South Uist (, ; ) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the rest of the Hebrides, is one of the ...

at (), a missile testing range was built in 1957–58 by the Ministry of Defence to launch the

MGM-5 Corporal The MGM-5 Corporal missile was an American short-range, nuclear-armed tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead. A guided tactical ballistic missile, ...

missile, Britain and America's first guided nuclear weapon. This development went ahead despite significant protests, some locals expressing concern that the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

language would not survive the influx of English-speaking Army personnel to South Uist. Opposition to the construction of the range resulted in the novel '' Rockets Galore'', by Sir

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of t ...

, which was made into the film '' Rockets Galore!''. Resistance to the building of the range also led to the construction of the religious monument Our Lady of the Isles. The UK Government claimed that there was an 'overriding national interest' in establishing a training range for their newly purchased Corporal, a weapon that was to be at the front line of

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

defence. Missiles were fired toward designated target coordinates in the Atlantic Ocean. Radar on

Hirta Hirta () is the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, on the western edge of Scotland. The names (in Scottish Gaelic) and ''Hirta'' (historically in English) have also been applied to the entire archipelago. Now without a permanent resi ...

(the main island of the St Kilda archipelago) identified missile landing points. Soviet spy ship 'fishing trawlers' would intrude into the target area and the UK adoption of the Corporal resulted in the islet of

Rockall Rockall () is a high, uninhabitable granite islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is west of Soay, St Kilda, Scotland; northwest of Tory Island, Ireland; and south of Iceland. The nearest permanently inhabited place is North Uist, east in ...

being incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1955, to prevent its use by Soviet observers. The Corporal missile was tested from 1959 to 1963, before giving way to

MGM-29 Sergeant The MGM-29 Sergeant was an American short-range, solid fuel, surface-to-surface missile developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The missiles were built by Sperry Utah Company. The Sergeant was the third and last in a series of JPL rockets for ...

and

MGM-52 Lance The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical surface-to-surface missile (tactical ballistic missile) system used to provide both W70, nuclear and conventional fire support to the United States Army. The missile's warhead was developed ...

tactical nuclear missiles. The 'rocket range' as it is known locally has also been used to test high-altitude research rockets,

Skua The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the Arctic skua, the long-tailed skua, and the pomarine skua, are called ...

and

Petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes. Description Petrels are a monophyletic group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels enco ...

. The range was operated by the

Defence Evaluation and Research Agency The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) was a part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1995 and 2 July 2001. At the time it was the United Kingdom's largest science and technology organisation. It was regarded by its official h ...

(DERA), for evaluating new missiles. MOD Hebrides is still owned by the MoD operated by

as a testing facility for missile systems such as the surface-to-air

Rapier missile Rapier is a surface-to-air missile developed for the British Army to replace their towed Bofors 40/L70 anti-aircraft guns. The system is unusual as it uses a manual optical guidance system, sending guidance commands to the missile in flight over ...

and

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s. In 2016, it was announced that £180million was to be invested in the modernisation of the facilities across MOD Hebrides, plus a site in Wales and another in England. In 2023, Exercise Formidable Shield, designed to test the ballistic missile defence capabilities of NATO and its partner nations, took place at MOD Hebrides Range. A total of more than 4,000 personnel from 13 nations, 20 ships, 35 aircraft, including the

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Syste ...

and

F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic Stealth aircraft, stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for both Air superiority fighter, air superiority and att ...

, and eight ground units, including radar platforms and the US M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), took part in the biennial exercise. In 2024, the DragonFire laser

directed-energy weapon A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include ...

(LDEW) was fired during trials at the MOD Hebrides range.

Structure

It is situated in the Outer Hebrides on

and

in the St Kilda archipelago. The now uninhabited St Kilda became Scotland's first

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in 1987 and is one of the few in the world to hold joint status for both its ecological and cultural significance. The range occupies 115,000km² of sanitised airspace with unlimited altitude. The missiles are tracked from St Kilda which is now leased by the

. The site is run by

, a privatised former division of the MoD. The facilities include: * Tracking Radar Facility: Real-time data for trials control and safety purposes, as well as providing recordings of time, space and position information for post-trial trajectory analysis, using G Band Radar and Nike Digital Instrumentation Radar (NiDIR). * Telemetry: Receive, record and monitor video and other data streams. * Support Services: Mechanical and engineering services, accommodation, recreation and medical facilities. * Surface Target Facility * Aerial Target Facility.

References

{{reflist

External links

Hebrides Missile Range
1957 establishments in Scotland Bombing ranges Buildings and structures in the Outer Hebrides Guided missiles of the United Kingdom History of the Outer Hebrides Military installations in Scotland Military units and formations established in 1957 Qinetiq South Uist St Kilda, Scotland

History

Structure

See also

References

External links