Cawdor Barracks is a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

installation located east of

St Davids St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, W ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

and south west of

Fishguard Fishguard ( cy, Abergwaun, meaning "Mouth of the River Gwaun") is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a population of 3,419 in 2011; the community of Fishguard and Goodwick had a population of 5,407. Modern Fishguard consists of two pa ...

, Pembrokeshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It was an operational airfield between 1944 and 1992, being used by both the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(when it was known as

RAF Brawdy RAF Brawdy is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located east of St Davids, Pembrokeshire and south west of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was operational between 1944 and 1992 being used by both the Royal Air Force and the Royal N ...

) and by Royal Navy's

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

(RNAS Brawdy), before closing in 1992. The site was reactivated in 1995 by the

and became Cawdor Barracks, home to 14 Signal Regiment, the army's

electronic warfare Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponen ...

unit.

History

The

station at Brawdy officially opened on 2 February 1944 as a satellite station for the

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...

aircraft of nearby

RAF St Davids Royal Air Force St Davids or more simply RAF St Davids is a former Royal Air Force station, near the city of St Davids, Wales, in the community of Solva. History The station was built in 1942/3 during the Second World War and was used by RAF ...

Royal Naval Air Station Brawdy

On 1 January 1946 the station was handed over to the

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and became Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS Brawdy), initially used as a Relief Landing Ground for

RNAS Dale Royal Naval Air Station Dale or more simply as RNAS Dale is a former Fleet Air Arm base located west of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales. History RAF Dale Construction of the airfield began between the villages of Dale and Marloes in 1 ...

located near

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( cy, Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has ...

. It was commissioned as HMS ''Goldcrest'' on 4 September 1952 and in March 1953 the first

Hawker Sea Hawk The Hawker Sea Hawk is a British single-seat jet day fighter formerly of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the air branch of the Royal Navy (RN), built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its design origina ...

entered service with

806 Naval Air Squadron 806 Naval Air Squadron (806 NAS) was a fighter squadron in the Fleet Air Arm that existed from February 1940 to December 1960 and saw active service in the Norwegian campaign, the Dunkirk evacuation and the Malta Convoys. History Formation A ...

. From 1963 till 1971 Brawdy was home to

Fairey Gannet The Fairey Gannet is a carrier-borne aircraft that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed for the Royal Navy, being the first fixed-wing aircraft to combine both the search an ...

s and

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

s in the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and advanced flying training roles respectively. The Royal Navy left in 1971 and the base was allocated to the

Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

RAF Brawdy

In February 1974 the Royal Air Force returned to Brawdy with 'D' Flight of No. 22 Squadron taking up residence with their Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 search and rescue helicopters. In September of the same year

No. 229 Operational Conversion Unit The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

, later the Tactical Weapons Unit (TWU), relocated with the

s after the closure of

RAF Chivenor Royal Air Force Chivenor or RAF Chivenor was a Royal Air Force station located on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nearest towns are Barnstaple and Braunton. Originally a civil airfield opene ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. By the late 1970s, the TWU operated

British Aerospace Hawk The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft. It was first flown at Dunsfold, Surrey, in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk, and subsequently produced by its successor companies, British Aerospace and B ...

T1A Squadron.

Transfer to the British Army

As part of the rationalisation of advanced and tactical weapons training, flying ceased at Brawdy on 31 August 1992. A small number of RAF personnel remained including No. 202 Squadron and their

Westland Sea King The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engin ...

s, which eventually left in July 1994. Brawdy was transferred to the

in 1995 and became Cawdor Barracks, the army's main

base. The name originated from the local Earls of

Cawdor Cawdor ( gd, Caladair) is a village and parish in the Highland council area, Scotland. The village is south-southwest of Nairn and east of Inverness. The village is in the Historic County of Nairnshire. History The village is the location of ...

(who owned the

Stackpole Estate The Stackpole Estate ( cy, Ystad Ystagbwll) is located between the villages of Stackpole ( cy, Ystagbwll) and Bosherston ( cy, Llanfihangel-clogwyn-gofan) in Pembrokeshire, Wales, within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is situated with ...

Units

Units based include:

British Army

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

( 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade) **14 Signal Regiment (Electronic Warfare) ***223 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***226 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***237 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***245 Signal Squadron (Electronic Warfare) ***Operations Support Squadron

Role and operations

Cawdor Barracks is home to the 14 Signal Regiment ("14 Signals"), the British Army's

unit. The Regiment remains on site and has a headquarters squadron and five signal squadrons, one of which is based at

RAF Digby Royal Air Force Digby otherwise known as RAF Digby is a Royal Air Force station located near Scopwick and south east of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, in Lincolnshire, England. The station is home to the tri-service Joint Service Signals Organi ...

Future

In November 2016, the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(MOD) announced that Cawdor Barracks would close in 2024. This was later extended to 2028.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Airliners.net Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyAir Britain Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyIvor "Taff" Davies Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyJet Photos.net Photo Gallery of Aircraft at RAF BrawdyXE624.org – Home of the ex-RAF Brawdy Gate Guard Hunter FGA.9
{{Royal Air Force Buildings and structures in Pembrokeshire Installations of the British Army Barracks in Wales