RAF Ascension Island

RAF Ascension
Wideawake Airbase/Field
Georgetown in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
75px
FHAW Shown within Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force / Serco
Website	www.ascension-flights.com
Site history
Built	1939 (1939)
In use	1939 – present
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: ASI, ICAO: FHAW
Elevation	85 metres (279 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 13/31 3,054 metres (10,020 ft) Asphalt
No Instrument landing system (ILS)

RAF Ascension (IATA: ASI, ICAO: FHAW) (more commonly known as RAF Ascension Island, and sometimes known as Wideawake Airfield or Ascension Island Base), is a British Royal Air Force station on Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Equator.

History

View of part of the station in November 1983

In 1939 Ascension became important as a HF/DF radio station covering trade routes. The first aircraft to land on Ascension Island was a Fairey Swordfish from HMS Archer in 1942.

Wideawake Airfield

Wideawake Airfield (named for a noisy colony of sooty terns nearby) was a US installation built in 1943 by arrangement with the British government. The airfield was built using a US task force to supply and augment extensive amphibious aircraft antisubmarine patrol operations. The airfield was abandoned at the end of the war and fell into disuse.

Ascension Island Auxiliary Field

Ascension Island Auxiliary Field was being built by 181 men from Saint Helena by 1957 (official activation as a satellite of Patrick AFB was on 25 June 1956.)

Target Tracking Radar Station

The Target Tracking Radar Station was a Nike Zeus test facility for tracking reentry vehicles from Cape Canaveral missile launches. Built from 1960-1961 for anti-ballistic missile measurement, the "Golf Ball" was on Cat Hill, and a collimation tower was towards English Bay.

NASA stations

The NASA Tracking Station at Devil's Ashpit and the Cable & Wireless Earth Station at Donkey Plain were built in the "mid-sixties" for space operations and communications, including the latter's use for transmitting "microwave borne data via the Early Bird Satellite back to the NASA facility at Andover, Maine."

RAF airfield

RAF Ascension Island was re-garrisoned by the RAF in 1982 and used extensively as a staging airfield during the Falklands War. Operation Black Buck, the long range bombing raid, was carried out from there. The airfield continues this staging post role for the Falkland Islands for the RAF.

Operations

RAF TriStar refuelling at Ascension during a stop en route to the Falkland Islands.

The station comes under the overall jurisdiction of the Commander British Forces South Atlantic Islands, an officer of one-star rank. As of 2013, this has been held by Air Commodore Russ LaForte. The RAF airfield on Ascension Island is run on a day-to-day basis by around nineteen RAF personnel, headed by a Wing Commander.

The RAF presence on Ascension is backed up by United States Air Force personnel, who contribute a similar number of service personnel to ensure the effective running of the station, under the command of Captain Eduard Rodriguez, who is responsible to the RAF Station Commander.

RAF Ascension Island is also the refuelling point for the Ministry of Defence's South Atlantic Air Bridge flights to RAF Mount Pleasant, on the Falkland Islands, from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, in the UK.

Ascension serves as a diversion airport for ETOPS aircraft crossing the Atlantic. In January 2013, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 777-232LR en route from Johannesburg to Atlanta diverted to Ascension as a result of engine problems.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Royal Air Force operated by AirTanker	RAF Brize Norton, RAF Mount Pleasant
Comair	Saint Helena, Johannesburg-OR Tambo (both begin May 2016)

See also

• Saint Helena Airport
• List of Royal Air Force stations
• List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

External links

• RAF Ascension Island
• James Rogers and Luis Simón. The Status and Location of the Military Installations of the Member States of the European Union and Their Potential Role for the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Brussels: European Parliament, 2009. 25 pp.