112 Signals Unit, RAF Stornoway (112 S.U.) was a classified Royal Air Force (RAF) Electronic countermeasures (ECM) measurement and evaluation unit based at Stornoway Airport on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It was an RAF Bomber Command Headquarters (HQBC) directly administered unit established during the height of the Cold War.
Role
Once 112 S.U. had been established at Stornoway Airport from 1 January 1960, under the auspices of the Operational Research Branch (O.R.B) at HQBC, the unit measured the signal strength, frequency bandwidths and aerial performance of the operational Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan V bombers as they flew a course towards, over or away from the unit varying from straight-lines to polar patterns. Results were passed back to HQBC and to each aircraft's base for the Electronics Engineers and Technicians to review for performance improvement of each piece of equipment that was measured. The combined success of the unit and each of the aircraft's bases along with support staff at BCDU and RRE Malvern (later to become RSRE Malvern) was demonstrated by the V-force during Operation Skyshield exercises during the early sixties. and subsequent exercises up to the time that the unit was closed in 1983
Cold War backdrop
From the start of the Cold War period, leading up to the time the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and to its subsequent tearing down in 1989 a number of key events happened that shaped the military aviation response. These events included the development of the Hydrogen bomb, the V bomber, Duncan Sandys' 1957 Defence White Paper, the application of Electronic countermeasures (ECM), the 1960 U-2 incident shooting down of Gary Powers' spy plane over Soviet territory, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, development of the Blue Steel missile, shift from a high altitude nuclear bomb to a low-level airborne stand-off nuclear-armed missile in 1964 and the change of platform to the Polaris missile submarine solution in 1968.
The V-force of RAF Bomber Command played a critical role during most of this period since the Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan bombers particularly had a very high operating ceiling keeping them above likely fighter attack. This was a strong hand to play right up to the time that Gary Power's U-2, which operated at an even higher ceiling than the V-force, was shot down by a Soviet missile over the Urals in May 1960. High altitude nuclear bomb tactics urgently had to change, especially since it had been decided that the submarine solution was a few years away from being a viable solution. The Blue Steel (missile) stand-off thermo-nuclear missile came to the rescue allowing the V-force to fly in low and launch the missile which in turn allowed the bombers to return to base from a safer height and distance. This change in airborne tactics required a subsequent change in ECM systems and techniques too.
Operation Skyshield
In the United States a decision had been taken that North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), consisting of Canadian and United States air defence systems, needed to be tested under Operation Skyshield. By 1961 RAF Bomber Command were invited to Skyshield II. All commercial and general aviation was grounded for up to a 12-hour period nationwide in order to accommodate this military exercise. Unlike the previous two Skyshield exercises when NOTAM's were announced, for 9 October 1962 a Special Civil Air Regulation, SR-452, was published for Skyshield III stating that electronic countermeasures would jam agency air traffic control radars and air-ground communications, making it unsafe for civilian aircraft to fly. Eight Vulcan B2's were selected, four each from 27 Squadron and 83 Squadron practised their drills ahead of time. In the novel Under the Radar by James Hamilton Paterson he writes of Skyshield I, "...and by September all eight aircraft had begun intensive training in the area around the Orkneys.... to practise co-ordinating their electronic countermeasures...." The Orkneys were used as a way-point at either the start or the end of the trombone-shaped south-westerly course towards 112 S.U. at Stornoway, 122 miles away, for ECM equipment measurement.