Troodos Station, formerly Royal Air Force Troodos, is a retained British

Strategic Command The United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. Headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, USSTRATCOM is responsible for strategic nuclear de ...

site in the

Republic of Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third lar ...

. Troodos Station is a remote Signals Station operated by personnel from Golf Section, Joint Service Signal Unit (Cyprus). The station parents the

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (, , ) is an extensive massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa (regional unit), Larissa and Pieria (regional ...

radar site, operated by a small contingent of RAF personnel. The station is based deep within the

Troodos Mountains Troodos or Trodos is the largest mountain range in Cyprus, located in roughly the center of the island. Its highest peak is Mount Olympusalso known in Greek as at . Covering a third of Cyprus's area, the Troodos mountain range stretches across ...

, approximately north of Episkopi.

History

Troodos Station is the oldest remaining British military base in Cyprus, dating from 1878. Initially it was used as a cool summer field hospital for troops from the

Egyptian Campaign The French invasion of Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a military expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign aimed to undermine British trade routes, expand French influence, and establish a ...

. British Army and Government officials also used it as a summer retreat.

Current use

Declassified documents show that RAF Troodos intercepted satellite communications for the

Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primari ...

(GCHQ), and documents released by Edward Snowden suggest this has continued in recent years funded by the U.S.

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

. Information from Snowden also indicates the site acts as a

listening post A radio listening station (also: listening post, radio intercept station or wireless intercept station, W/T station for wireless telegraphy) is a facility used for military reconnaissance, especially telecommunications reconnaissance (also kn ...

for radio signals from the near

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. The

British National Space Centre The British National Space Centre (BNSC) was an agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, organised in 1985, that coordinated civil space activities for the United Kingdom. It was replaced on 1 April 2010 by the UK Space Agency. Structu ...

Starbrook wide-field telescope has been here since 2006. It can detect orbiting objects from in size.

References

External links

Intelligence agency stations in Cyprus Royal Air Force stations in Cyprus UKUSA listening stations {{RAF-stub

History

Current use

See also

References

External links