Naval Facility Bermuda, or NAVFAC Bermuda, was the operational shore terminus for one of the Atlantic Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) array systems installed during the first phase of system installation and in commission from 1955 until 1992. The true surveillance mission was classified and covered by "oceanographic research" until the mission was declassified in 1991. The system's acoustic data was collected after the facility was decommissioned until the system was routed to the central processing facility, the Naval Ocean Processing Facility (NOPF), Dam Neck, Virginia in 1994. The operational surveillance facility was often confused with the adjacent research facility, the Tudor Hill Laboratory, and its undersea sensors supporting research and development for Navy acoustic systems. That laboratory was the only such research and development facility with access to an operational surveillance facility. When that laboratory, then a detachment of the

Naval Underwater Systems Center The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is the United States Navy's full-spectrum research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, and offensive and defensive weapons ...

, was disestablished 30 September 1990 its facilities were assigned to the Naval Facility which was then decommissioned two years later. The Tudor Hill area in the British

Imperial fortress Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Salisbury described Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Halifax as Imperial fortresses at the 1887 Colonial Conference, though by that point they had been so designated for decades. Later histor ...

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

had been one of the locations where the

Bermuda Base Command The Bermuda Base Command was a command of the United States Army, established to defend the British Colony of Bermuda, located 640 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was created in April 1941 when United States Army troops were sent to ...

(established by the United States to reinforce the

Bermuda Garrison The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory and Imperial fortress of Bermuda by the regular British Army and its local-service militia and voluntary reserves from 1701 to 1957. The garrison ev ...

of the

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 ...

) had emplaced

United States Army Coast Artillery Corps The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artiller ...

batteries during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The battery still remains, although the guns were removed on the conclusion of the war. Although United States Army defences were withdrawn from Bermuda, the United States Naval Operating Base Bermuda and the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Kindley Field Kindley Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base in Bermuda from 1948–1970, having been operated from 1943 to 1948 by the United States Army Air Forces as ''Kindley Field''. History World War II Prior to American entry into th ...

remained under 99-year base leases granted by the British Government.

Naval Facility Bermuda

Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Bermuda was a shore terminus for SOSUS arrays, in which output of the array at sea was processed and displayed by means of the

Low Frequency Analyzer and Recorder (LOFAR) Low Frequency Analyzer and Recorder and Low Frequency Analysis and Recording (LOFAR) are the equipment and process respectively for presenting a visual spectrum representation of low frequency sounds in a time–frequency analysis. The process was ...

, commissioned 1 June 1955 as part of the first phase of Atlantic installations. The facility's mission was classified until 1991 when the cover story of "oceanographic research" was revealed as "surveillance." The facility, with fifteen officers, 155 enlisted, two local civilian employees and resident contractor, was upgraded numerous times over its operational life of thirty-seven years. NAVFAC Bermuda was decommissioned as a command 30 September 1992. In 1994 the acoustic data from the system itself was routed directly to the Naval Ocean Processing Facility (NOPF), Dam Neck, Virginia. There was some hope that the base would survive the end of the Cold War, and the base closures of 1995. It was thought that it might be adapted to scientific purposes, for the monitoring of whales, but it was closed, instead, along with NAS Bermuda, and the NAS Annex.

Tudor Hill Laboratory

NAVFAC Bermuda was often associated with and confused with the adjacent Naval Underwater Systems Center's Tudor Hill Laboratory which was engaged in acoustic research. The laboratory was a major facility and operated a number of acoustic research systems off Bermuda and the R/V ''Erline''. The laboratory was built in the early 1960s as the Bermuda Research Detachment to support

Project Artemis Project Artemis was a United States Navy acoustics research and development experiment from the late 1950s into the mid 1960s to test a potential low-frequency active sonar system for ocean surveillance. The at sea testing began in 1960 after re ...

and Project Trident, an investigation into ocean acoustics that included a bottom mounted vertical array. Among the better known facilities of the laboratory was the Argus Island platform built for

. The Tudor Hill Laboratory was the terminus for a number of undersea systems supporting both passive and active sonar development and environmental and oceanographic acoustical research with shore facilities also available to visiting researchers of Navy projects with suitable clearances and funding. The laboratory was the only Atlantic Navy research and development facility with direct access to an operational SOSUS facility allowing studies and evaluation of operational hardware. When the Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC) detachment and Tudor Hill Laboratory on Bermuda were shut down 30 September 1990 the facilities were transferred to the Naval Facility with the understanding that NUSC would be provided support should a research need arise.

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(Photo) Buildings closest to beach: NAVFAC Terminal Building (left) Tudor Hill Laboratory (right)Photos of NAVFAC Bermuda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naval Facility Bermuda Fortifications in Bermuda Closed installations of the United States Navy Southampton Parish, Bermuda 1954 establishments in North America 1995 disestablishments in North America

Naval Facility Bermuda

Tudor Hill Laboratory

See also

References

External links