RAF Barkway is one the smallest RAF stations in the UK. It is a Communications Station and is a small collection of buildings and a large radio mast.

History

It was originally opened as a monitor station on 22 June 1942 for the GEE (navigation) network in the Eastern area.

Current Use

The site was used by the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 (USAFE). It was part of communications network linking:

• RAF Chicksands
  RAF Chicksands
  RAF Chicksands was a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, which closed in 1997 when responsibility for the camp was taken over by the British Army Intelligence Corps...
  
  
• RAF Mildenhall
  RAF Mildenhall
  RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force station located at Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as an RAF station, it primarily supports United States Air Force operations and is currently the home of the 100th Air Refueling Wing...
  
  
• RAF Lakenheath
  RAF Lakenheath
  RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force military airbase near Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel...
  
  
• RAF Feltwell
  RAF Feltwell
  RAF Feltwell is a Royal Air Force station in Norfolk, East Anglia that is currently used by the United States Air Forces Europe. The station is located about 10 miles west of Thetford, and is in the borough of King's Lynn at approximate Ordnance Survey grid reference .A former Second World War...
  
  
• RAF Molesworth
  RAF Molesworth
  RAF Molesworth is a Royal Air Force station located near Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom with a history dating back to 1917.Its runway and flight line facilities were closed in 1973 and demolished to support ground-launched cruise missile operations in the early 1980s...
  
   (via RAF Chelveston
  RAF Chelveston
  RAF Station Chelveston was a military airfield located on the south side of the A45, 5 miles east of Wellingborough, near the village of Chelveston in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom....
  
  )
• RAF Alconbury
  RAF Alconbury
  RAF Alconbury is an active Royal Air Force station in Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is adjacent to the Stukeleys [Great and Little] and located about northwest of Huntingdon; about north of London....
  
  
• RAF Croughton
  RAF Croughton
  RAF Croughton is a United States Air Force communications base in Northamptonshire, England, to the southeast of the village of Croughton. The station is home to the 422nd Air Base Group and operates one of Europe's largest military switchboards and processes approximately a third of all U.S...
  
  

In September 2008 the base was broken into by a Base Jumper

BASE jumping

BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects...

who climbed the mast and then jumped off and deployed his parcahute.

The site has now been put up for sale as it is surplus to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) requirements.

External links

• Photo of RAF Barkway accessed 2008-10-02