Colerne Airfield , now known as Azimghur Barracks, is a British Army facility just north-west of the village of

Colerne Colerne is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England. The village is about west of the town of Corsham and northeast of the city of Bath. It has an elevated and exposed position, above sea level, and overlooks the Box valley to ...

, Wiltshire, England.

History

RAF Colerne Royal Air Force Colerne or more simply RAF Colerne is a former Royal Air Force station which was on the outskirts of the village of Colerne in Wiltshire, England, and was in use from 1939 to 1976. The site is now known as Azimghur Barracks and ...

was opened on this site in 1940, and was in operation until 1976. From 1940 to 1955,

RAF Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Britai ...

units were based here. During the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

the airfield served as a satellite field to

RAF Middle Wallop Middle Wallop is a village in the civil parish of Nether Wallop in Hampshire, England, on the A343 road. At the 2011 Census the population was included in the civil parish of Over Wallop. The village has a public house, The George Inn, and a pet ...

, and squadrons rotated back and forth from there on a daily basis.

Present day

The site is a ground station for the

Skynet 5 Skynet is a family of military communications satellites, now operated by Airbus Defence and Space on behalf of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (MoD). They provide strategic and tactical communication services to the branches of the ...

military satellite system that provides battlefield support (e.g. real-time imagery from remote-piloted drones in various theatres of war). It is in close proximity to the underground

Corsham Computer Centre The Corsham Computer Centre (CCC) is an underground British Ministry of Defence (MoD) installation in Corsham, Wiltshire, built in the 1980s. According to the MoD, the centre "processes data in support of the Royal Navy". The centre has been simil ...

. The site is also the location of Azimghur Barracks, home to 21 Signal Regiment. The airfield is used by Air Cadets and 3 Air Experience Flight, and is the headquarters of

Bristol University Air Squadron Bristol University Air Squadron is a University Air Squadron connected to the University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal char ...

, a Volunteer Reserve unit which recruits from several universities in south-west England.

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 ...

announced that the airfield would close in 2018 (later extended to 2025), and Azimghur Barracks in 2031 (later brought forward to 2029).

References

{{Reflist History of Wiltshire Airports in South West England