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United Kingdom Warning And Monitoring Organisation
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was a British civilian organisation operating to provide UK military and civilian authorities with data on nuclear explosions and forecasts of fallout across the country in the event of nuclear war. The UKWMO was established in 1957 and funded by the Home Office and used its own premises which were mainly staffed by Royal Observer Corps (ROC) uniformed full-time and volunteer personnel as the fieldforce. The ROC was administered by the Ministry of Defence but mainly funded by the Home Office. The only time the combined organisations were on high alert in the Cold War was during Cuban Missile Crisis in October and November 1962. The organisation was wound up and disbanded in November 1992 following a review prompted by the government's Options for Change report. Its emblem-of-arms was a pair of classic hunting horns crossing each other, pointed upwards, with the enscrolled motto "Sound An Alarm", a title also used fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowley Barracks
Cowley Barracks (originally Bullingdon Barracks) was a military installation in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. History The barracks were built in a Fortress Gothic Revival style at Bullingdon Green using Charlbury stone and completed in spring 1876. Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the localisation of British military forces. The barracks became the depot for the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot and the 85th Regiment of Foot (Bucks Volunteers). Following the Childers Reforms, the 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot amalgamated to form the Oxfordshire Light Infantry with its depot at the barracks in 1881. Following the Haldane Reforms the Oxfordshire Light Infantry became the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1908. Many recruits enlisted at the barracks during the early stages of the First World War. The original proposal for the Oxfordshire and Buckingham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goosnargh
Goosnargh ( ) is a village and civil parish in the City of Preston district of Lancashire, England. The village lies between Broughton and Longridge, and mostly lies in the civil parish of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in the civil parish of Goosnargh. The parish of Goosnargh had a population of 1,204 recorded in the 2001 census, increasing to 1,316 at the 2011 Census. The village population in 2011 was 1,072. Toponymy The name, meaning "Gosan's or Gusan's hill pasture", derives from Gosan or Gusan (an Old Irish personal name) and ''erg'' ( Norse for "hill pasture"). The name appeared in the Domesday Book as ''Gusansarghe'' but by 1212 had changed to ''Gosenargh'', closer to today's pronunciation. However, one reference suggested ''Gusansarghe'' was from Old Norse ''gudhsins hörgi'' (related to ''hörgr''), meaning "at the idol's (god's) temple." Goosnargh village The Anglican parish church of St Mary the Virgin is situated on Church Lane. Trinity Met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is a United Kingdom Ministry of Defence research facility responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons. It is the successor to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) with its main site on the former RAF Aldermaston and has major facilities at Burghfield, Blacknest and RNAD Coulport. AWE plc, responsible for the day-to-day operations of AWE, is owned by the Ministry of Defence and operated as a non-departmental public body. Until June 2021, AWE plc was owned by a consortium of Jacobs Engineering Group, Lockheed Martin UK and Serco through AWE Management Ltd, which held a 25‑year contract (until March 2025) to operate AWE, although all the sites remained owned by the Government of the United Kingdom which had a golden share in AWE plc. In November 2020, it was announced that the Ministry of Defence had triggered a contractual break point and would take ownership of AWE Plc in Jul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Minute Warning
The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile attack against the United Kingdom could be confirmed and the impact of those missiles on their targets. The population was to be notified by means of air raid sirens, television and radio, and urged to seek cover immediately. In practice, the warning would have been more likely three minutes or less. The warning system Basic details The warning would be initiated by the detection of inbound missiles and aircraft targeted at the United Kingdom. Early in the Cold War, Jodrell Bank was used to detect and track incoming missiles, while continuing to be used for astronomical research. Throughout the Cold War, there was a conflict between the Royal Air Force and the Home Office about who was in charge of the warning system. This was not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North York Moors
The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a National Park in 1952, through the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Covering an area of , the National Park has a population of 23,380. It is administered by the North York Moors National Park Authority, whose head office is based in Helmsley. Location and transport To the east the area is clearly defined by the impressive cliffs of the North Sea coast. The northern and western boundaries are defined by the steep scarp slopes of the Cleveland Hills edging the Tees lowlands and the Hambleton Hills above the Vale of Mowbray. To the south lies the broken line of the Tabular Hills and the Vale of Pickering. Four roads cross the North York Moors from north to south. In the east the A171 joins Whitby and Scarborough. Further inland, the A169 runs between Pickering and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Fylingdales
Royal Air Force Fylingdales or more simply RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" (translates to "We are watching"). It is a radar base and is also part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). As part of intelligence-sharing arrangements between the United States and United Kingdom (see, for example, the UKUSA Agreement), data collected at RAF Fylingdales are shared between the two countries. Its primary purpose is to give the British and US governments warning of an impending ballistic missile attack (part of the so-called four minute warning during the Cold War). A secondary role is the detection and tracking of orbiting objects; Fylingdales is part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. As well as its early-warning and space-tracking roles, Fylingdales has a third function – the Satellite Warning Service for the UK. It keeps track of spy satellites used by other countri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, "474L System", Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system, for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve radars, which was constructed beginning in 1958 and became operational in 1961, was built to detect a "mass ballistic missile attack launched on northern approaches or15 to 25 minutes' warning time" also provided Project Space Track satellite data (e.g., about one-quarter of SPADATS observations). Background The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was a radar system built by the United States (with the cooperation of Canada and Denmark on whose territory some of the radars were sited) during the Cold War to give early warning of a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear strike, to allow time for US bombers to get off the ground and land-based US ICBMs to be launched, to reduce the chances that a preemptive str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Message Switching
In telecommunications, message switching involves messages routed in their entirety, one hop at a time. It evolved from circuit switching and was the precursor of packet switching. History Western Union operated a message switching system, Plan 55-A, for processing telegrams in the 1950s. Leonard Kleinrock wrote a doctoral thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962 that analyzed queueing delays in this system. Message switching was built by Collins Radio Company, Newport Beach, California, during the period 1959–1963 for sale to large airlines, banks and railroads. The original design for the ARPANET was Wesley Clark's April 1967 proposal for using Interface Message Processors to create a message switching network. Packet switching was incorporated into the design by Larry Roberts after the first ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in October 1967 based on the work of both Donald Davies and Paul Baran who had been working on the idea of packet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitel
Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP) products. Mitel is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with offices, partners and resellers worldwide. In April 2018, the company announced it would be bought by an investor group led by Searchlight Capital Partners. Corporate history Founding Michael Cowpland and Terry Matthews founded Mitel in 1973 (officially on June 8, 1973). Conventionally, its name is regarded as a combination of the founders’ first names and their first product – "MIke and TErry Lawnmowers". Michael Cowpland is quoted as stating that it stands for "MIke and Terry ELectronics", whereas Terry Matthews confirmed the lawnmower acronym during an interview on BBC Radio 4's ''The Bottom Line'' in May 2011. The pair formed the corporation with the blessing of their employer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electromagnetic Pulse
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon the source, the origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic field, as an electric field, as a magnetic field, or as a conducted electric current. The electromagnetic interference caused by an EMP disrupts communications and damages electronic equipment; at higher levels of energy, an EMP such as a lightning strike can physically damage objects such as buildings and aircraft. The management of EMP effects is a branch of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering. EMP weapons are designed to deliver the damaging effects of a high-energy EMP that will disrupt unprotected infrastructure in the country, thus the employment of an EMP weapon against a country is the scenario of war most likely to collapse the functionality of the electrical network of the country. General characteristics An elec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition And Estimation Of Yield
Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield known by the acronym AWDREY was a desk-mounted automatic detection instrument, located at 12 of the 25 Royal Observer Corps (ROC) controls, across the United Kingdom, during the Cold War. The instruments would have detected any nuclear explosions and indicated the estimated size in megatons. With the display unit mounted in a steel cabinet, the system used two sets of five photo-sensitive cells within the detection head to record the intense flash of light produced by the detonation of the weapon followed, within a second, by a second intense flash. This double flash is characteristic of a nuclear explosion and measurement of the short gap between the two flashes enabled the weapon's power to be estimated, and the bearing to be indicated. It had a range of 150 miles (240 km) in good visibility. From 1974 AWDREY units were used together with a device known as DIADEM (Direction Indicator of Atomic Detonation by E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
