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UKADGE

Page history last edited by Ian Gillis 2 months, 1 week ago Saved with comment

 

Installations

Bentley Priory

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Input by John Brown (at that time serving in the RAF)

IMPROVED UK AIR DEFENCE GROUND ENVIRONMENT – IUKADGE - CONCEPT AND IMPLEMENTATION

 

THE AIR DEFENCE ENVIRONMENT TEAM – ADET

ADET had been formed in 1972 at HQSTC with the task of progressing the study of UK AIR DEFENCE, carried out earlier by Air Vice-Marshal Austen-Smith and his team. The Study Report had identified deficiencies in the existing UK air defence system, partly arising from LINESMAN’s short-comings, and that it had been geared to meet NATO’s ‘Trip-Wire’ philosophy of the threat escalating from conventional (in its early stages), to all-out nuclear war. With NATO now adopting its ‘Flexible Response’ policy, an entirely different air defence radar system was needed, with greater emphasis placed on hardening of the control elements, and enhanced flexibility in the deployment of the radars, to circumvent pre-targeting. To facilitate the required flexibility, the radars would need to be connected into a ‘ring-main’ data network, which linked all the control elements of the system.

 

ADET had moved from HQSTC to the MOD (Procurement Executive – PE) in 1977, after the project had received formal Air Force Board approval. As IUKADGE already followed NATO system principles, it had been decided to submit the project to NATO scrutiny, with the aim of obtaining maximum financial support. This was not only for the radar equipment, but for all of the civil works, plans for which were being prepared in association with the Property Services Agency (PSA). By 1980, PSA had begun to submit its outline drawings, and the ‘scope of work’ to NATO for study, (in NATO parlance, ‘screening’) by the Infrastructure Staff. To ‘assist’ the staffs in this work, the Air Defence Working Group 28, with membership drawn from the fifteen NATO Nations (I represented the UK), scrutinised all the papers relating to IUKADGE. PSA representatives supported me when civil works were to be on the agenda.

 

The technical system of IUKADGE was defined in a number of Air Staff Requirements (ASRs); ASR 888 (display, communications, and data-handling system), ASR 1585 and ASR 1586 (air defence radars), and a number of ASRs which covered specialist systems, such as communications, data links, secure speech, and data circuits etc. ASR 888 was the most complex, as it covered the complete system of twelve stations. These comprised: the Air Defence Operations Centre (ADOC) and its Standby ADOC; four Sector Operations Centres/Control & Reporting Centres (SOC/CRC) *; four Control & Reporting Posts (CRPs); and two Reporting Posts (RPs). In addition, there was to be a Systems Development Centre (SDC).

 

Following international competitive bidding, and a period of adjudication, the consortium of Hughes Aircraft, Marconi, and Plessey - entitled UKSL (UKADGE Systems Ltd) - was awarded the contract for ASR888; it was formally signed in September 1981. UKSL set up its offices in a GEC building, Kemble House, off Kingsway. The design work associated with the display and data-handling system would be handled by UKSL back in its parent company factories; however, installation design would be carried out at Kemble House. This would be conveniently near to St Giles’ Court; close liaison could be maintained with ADET (and subsequently with the SCA), and with civil servants in the various project office’s within MOD (PE). Also in 1981, ADET had established, following a bidding process, a Project Management Information Service (UPMIS) provided by System Designers Ltd at Fleet, Hampshire, to monitor all activities associated with IUKADGE. Progressively, this was expanded to include all of the civil engineering work at each UK site, as well as the NATO radar site on the Faroes, (which came within, what was known as, the UK Air Defence Region – the UKADR). A liaison office was manned at St Giles’ Court close to ADET.

 

Under earlier plans for RAF Buchan, the Radar Type 80 (operational since 1954) was to be replaced by a Radar Type 92 supplied by General Electric; a similar radar was to be installed on a new site – South Clettreval –to the north of new CRP on Benbecula; both of these radars were funded by NATO. The extensive civil works, including a new access road up to South Clettreval, was joint-funded by UK and NATO, under IUKADGE plans.

 

THE SYSTEM CO-ORDINATING AUTHORITY – SCA

By the Spring of 1982, the basic building blocks of IUKADGE were starting to fit into place. Tendering for the radars under ASR 1585 and 1586 had resulted in contracts being awarded to Marconi (for Martello), and to Plessey (forAR327); the Unitor ring-main data transmission system - which linked all the sub-systems around the UK together - had been awarded to GEC and BT. ADET had really completed its work, as the implementation of IUKADGE now took over. With some fifteen sub-systems to be integrated, plus civil engineering at a large number of sites spread around the UK, as well as the Faroes, a new organisation was necessary to co-ordinate all this work; it was vital that IUKADGE was completed on time.

 

Thus the System Co-ordinating Authority (SCA) came into being, succeeding ADET, and in June 1982, moved into offices in Turnstile House, on the north side of High Holborn, only a short walk from Holborn Tube Station. Also accommodated in the same building was the liaison office of our UPMIS project management information service, the project offices responsible for the procurement of the various systems, and a Royal Danish Air Force Liaison Officer for the Faroes site. A new Directorate was established, headed up by Air Commodore Peter Chislett; he was responsible to Air Vice-Marshal Frank Holroyd, Director General Strategic Electronic Systems. Initially John Peberdy was Head of SCA, but after a short period he left the RAF, and I succeeded him.

 

One of the first actions was to establish a Co-ordinating Installation Design Authority (CIDA) directly answerable to the SCA, to ensure common installation design at each site, as well as applying certain electronic standards of TEMPEST, EMPP etc. After a tendering process, Cossor Electronics Ltd of Harlow was awarded the CIDA contract. Cossor set up a special team at Harlow, in a secure area, under Bernard Hill. Many of his team I knew from Marconi Church Green days, including Cyril Newland (formerly the Chief of Installation Planning at Church Green), to whom Bernard Hill reported. Experience was therefore very high within this team.

 

OVERALL IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT

The key document, which was issued at eight week intervals, was the SCA Report. This was produced by UPMIS, and verified by me, and gave a situation up-date on every part of IUKADGE, including the civil works programme. Ten days later, I would chair the SCA Meeting at St Giles’ Court, attended by representatives from all the contributing agencies, and formally went through the Report page by page. This resulted in a set of Action Minutes, with stipulated dates for resolution. I also produced a set of papers which went into a Management Portfolio, a copy of which was held by each member of the IUKADGE Management Board. The Board comprised twelve members at Air Commodore level, under the chairmanship of my Director-General. Prior to each Board Meeting, I would brief the Chairman on the agenda, and any recent discussions I had had at NATO, regarding IUKADGE. As Head of SCA, I attended each Board Meeting; this also had the great merit of establishing the authority of the SCA, particularly with outside agencies Periodically, I would give a Project Briefing to the NATO Payments and Progress Committee and the Infrastructure Committee, as well as host visits to the sites by NATO officials, for them to view progress. IUKADGE was at the time, the largest and most complex air defence project to which they were contributing, and highly visible.

 

PROVISION OF POWER BUFFERING

Two years into the project, a significant problem was brought to my attention. The display and data-handling equipment being developed by UKSL used power supplies of the switched-mode type. This was an electronic approach to the generation of power supplies, which was starting to become common practice. What was new, was the effect on the incoming supply when a large number of equipments were connected to it. It was found that they fed back a ‘spiky’ waveform on to the outside electricity supply (OES), which would be in contravention to what was permissible, and the MOD would be liable. Some form of power-buffering would be required at every site. Apart from the cost of the necessary equipment, additional civil engineering work, to the nearly completed buildings, would now be required in order to accommodate the power-buffering equipment. I briefed the NATO committee’s accordingly, and then had to then seek substantial funding, both from NATO, and the UK Treasury.

 

INSTALLATION AND COMMISSIONING

By the end of 1987, the new CRP at RAF Portreath, Cornwall was operational, followed by the CRP’s at RAF Benbecula, RDAF Faroes, and RAF Saxa Vord, on the Shetlands. Early in 1988, the two RP’s at Bishops Court, and RAF Staxton Wold were handed over. The system-testing programme, linking the SOC/CRC sites at RAF ASH, RAF Boulmer, RAF Buchan, and RAF Neatishead, was completed in May 1988. This left the new ADOC at HQSTC, and the Standby ADOC at RAF Bentley Priory, to be handed over in July 1988, thus meeting our project completion date.

 

As far as the SCA, PSA, and CIDA were concerned, their tasks were now completed and, apart from the CIDA On-Site Representatives (who remained on site to provide a technical service), the personnel moved on to other projects; For the Cossor team, it was on to the new NATS ATC Centre at Swanick to carry out a similar CIDA task there.

 

During the work-up by the RAF operations staff, a number of significant problems became evident with the software, requiring much additional effort by UKSL to resolve before IUKADGE – as a total system – could be declared fully operational (1991).

 

*NOTE: In 1977, while I was in another MOD post, I was co-opted on to a special MOD/National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Committee set-up to consider the circumstances, in a period of tension, when it would be necessary to deploy NATS and RAF staff from West Drayton to another location. It was decided that an underground bunker in the Southern Sector was required. At the time, ADET was basing its plans on three SOC/CRC bunkers; our Committee thought that a fourth bunker was required, but integrated into the proposed new air defence system. Because of my previous association with air defence systems, and with ROTOR bunkers in particular, I was tasked to investigate the possibilities, and write a report. I discovered that the CAA was planning to build a new chain of ATC radars in the UK, and would be vacating the site at Ash (formerly known as RAF Sandwich with an R3 bunker); if it could be acquired, it would meet all of the Committee’s criteria. The Committee and ADET accepted my recommendation, and subsequently, Ash was purchased and became the fourth SOC/CRC.

 

Marconi Workstation is described in detail here with further details here  and here

UKADGE Proposal Team

 

Certificate of Merit awarded to members of the Proposal Team in Fullerton, CA

 

An input taken from Harry Cole's paper

 

Archived report

 

"New Horizons" - an extract re IUKADGE from the Fighter Command Yearbook 1993

 

 

Installations

Bentley Priory

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Ian Gillis said

at 6:55 pm on Feb 15, 2016

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