1950 жылдарғы британдық әуе қорғаныс радар жүйесі (1950 жылдардағы британдық әуе қорғаныс радар жүйесі)

1950s British air defence radar system
the American science fiction action film

ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII era systems, notably the original Chain Home radars for the early warning role, and the AMES Type 7 for plotting and interception control. Data from these stations was sent to a network of control stations, mostly built underground, using an extensive telephone and telex network. Work also began on a new microwave frequency radar to replace Chain Home c. 1957. The experimental system Green Garlic was so successful that it began replacing Chain Home starting in 1954. In service, these proved so accurate that they could replace the Type 7 radars as well, and their greatly improved range meant that fewer radars would be needed to provide coverage over the entire United Kingdom. This led to the Master Radar Stations that filled both early warning and ground controlled interception roles. The original ROTOR plans for 66 radars was repeatedly reduced, ultimately only requiring half that number of stations. Many of the operations rooms, recently completed, were sold. ROTOR called for the continual upgrading of the network over time, both the radars and the command and control systems. The introduction of the carcinotron radar jammer in the mid 1950s was a serious blow to these plans; a single aircraft carrying a carcinotron could jam the ROTOR radars so completely that they were rendered useless. At the same time, the introduction of the hydrogen bomb and ballistic missile greatly changed the nature of the strategic threat, and the idea of whole country defence became untenable. The only way to defend against missile attacks was deterrence, and if that failed, interceptor aircraft and missiles would have no measurable effect on the eventual outcome. ROTOR was initially to be replaced by a new network dedicated largely to defending the V bomber force, the "1958 Plan". This role was eventually abandoned, leaving only the task of locating aircraft carrying jammers to keep the BMEWS radars free from interference and prevent a successful sneak attack by missiles. Such a system did not require a large number of radars nor country wide coverage. To reduce the cost of this much smaller network, studies on integrating the military radars with civilian air traffic control led to the Linesman/Mediator system of only five primary stations. The original ROTOR was replaced by Linesman in stages, starting in 1967. A similar expedient system in the United States was the Lashup Radar Network.

As the threat of German air attack became ever more remote, UK radar operations were wound down late in the war, and by the time the war ended were already largely unused. When the war ended, there was a general feeling that another war was at least ten years in the future. Given the rapid ongoing improvements in radar systems through this period, the Air Ministry felt there was no point introducing new radars that would likely become obsolete in a few years. They planned to allow radar to continue developing through this period and use the existing WWII era systems in the meantime. To consider the issue in more depth, the Cherry Report was commissioned in 1945. This report noted that the increasing speeds of new bombers, and especially future designs that were jet powered, would travel across the plotting boards of the existing Dowding system so rapidly that they would fly off the maps before the interception could be arranged. The report suggested that a radar with range would be needed to replace the existing AMES Type 7/GCI systems, which were limited to about against bomber sized targets. Estimating that such a radar would be available around 1957, the report suggested that existing GCI stations should receive upgraded antennas with more accuracy, new electronics for better performance, upgrades to their display systems, four Type 13's for height measuring, and two Type 14 units for anti jamming use. Additionally, their information would be sent to six new command centres, who would produce much larger maps of the airspace, up to across. Additionally, all of the sites would be upgraded with hardened bunkers to allow them to survive a near miss.

The Berlin Blockade of July 1948 led to concerns about the next war's estimated time frame. A White Paper on the state of the network was completed in March 1949. This found that the stations were in a terrible state, with many of them suffering weather damage and a number of them having been broken into and vandalized. A complete defense would also require 1152 fighters and 265 AA regiments, of which only 352 fighters and 75 regiments were actually available. All of this was given extreme urgency with the 29 August 1949 test of the first Soviet atomic bomb. That month, a new directive stated RAF Fighter Command's mission was the defense of Great Britain. It was known that the Soviets had made exact copies of the B 29 Superfortress as the Tupolev Tu 4, and these aircraft had the performance needed to reach the UK with a nuclear payload. These were fast, but not fast enough to escape the existing radars if they were upgraded as the Cherry Report suggested. Most of the new network would be made up of 28 rebuilt Chain Home systems, while the rest were taken from the existing selection of Chain Home Low, Chain Home Extra Low and the various Ground controlled interception (GCI) radars. This was, in part, a stop gap measure anticipating the availability of the dramatically improved radar, which was now known as the Microwave Early Warning, which was expected in the 1957 time frame. Interception guidance would still be handled by existing systems in either case. All of the radars were to be improved in terms of siting, with the addition of hardened control bunkers to protect the operators from a conventional attack. On the east coast, where a Soviet attack would be most likely, the bunkers were underground in the 'R' series (R1, R2, R3 and R4 etc. ), while those on the western side of the UK were generally semi sunken hardened structures ('R6') or above ground 'Secco' type huts (Hartland Point etc.). The R series bunkers themselves were otherwise similar, featuring 10 feet (3 m) concrete walls with all equipment, operations generators and air conditioning located inside. Additionally, ROTOR re arranged the existing RAF Fighter Command structure into six "Sector Operational Commands" (SOC) with their own command bunkers (three level 'R4' protected accommodation). Only four of these were built. Additional "Anti Aircraft Operations Rooms" were built to coordinate the British Army's AA defences in the same overall system. The entire network of bunkers, radars, fighter control and command centres used up 350,000 tons of concrete, 20,000 tons of steel and thousands of miles of telephone and telex connections. The work was mainly carried out by the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company in several phases, called ROTOR 1, ROTOR 2 and ROTOR 3.

As work on the Microwave Early Warning system began, researchers at the Royal Radar Establishment were experimenting with new cavity magnetrons and crystal detectors that, combined with a ad hoc antenna, increased the range of their existing microwave radars on the order of four times. While the resulting "Green Garlic" did not meet all of the requirements for the original MEW, it was close enough and would be available years earlier. The decision was made to make the MEW a long term development with additional features such as moving target indication while the Green Garlic would be mated to an enormous antenna that would give it range over Installations, under the name AMES Type 80, began in 1954 with the first systems declared operational the next year. As installations continued, it was found that the accuracy was such that it could also be used to direct the interceptors, with no need to forward the information to the ROTOR control centres. By concentrating all of the plotting at a single site the total number of operators was greatly reduced. As a result of the introduction of the Type 80, many of the existing ROTOR sites were rationalized into Master Radar Stations (MRS), while the rest were made redundant, some only two years after opening. During the same period, the introduction of the first surface to air missiles rendered the anti aircraft guns obsolete, and the Army handed the air defence mission entirely to the RAF. All of the AAOR sites were closed. A few of the ROTOR and AAOR stations were re used for Regional Seats of Government or local authority wartime headquarters. Until the end of the Cold War, many of the sites were retained by the government. They were later sold to private buyers, converted into museums (for example Hack Green) or transferred to the National Air Traffic Control Centre.