Written by Nick Catford on 11 October 2001.
RAF Edzel was home to the US Navy security group’s Oceanographic Monitoring Station, monitoring the North Sea and the coast around the north of Britain. It worked in conjunction with the former ROTOR site at Inverbervie which had also been taken over by the US Navy in 1960. The hub of the base was the massive receiver building which had two levels below ground. This would have relayed information to the computer and communications centre.
The base closed in 1996, the domestic site has been sold and the housing reused. The airfield site is still secure with no evidence of any demolition. Site visits are inadvisable.
Written by Martin Briscoe on 26 January 2024.
Most information from Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wiards.
Part of the US Project BORESIGHT which had fourteen CLASSIC WIZARD / CLASSIC BULLSEYE HFDF sites around the world to locate burst transmissions from the Soviet submarines.
The US Navy signed papers transferring the site from RAF on 11th February 1960.
NSGA Edzell was the main US intelligence gathering site in Scotland during the Cold War. The USAFSS had run a DF station at nearby Stracathro since the early 1950s. An early warning complex was constructed at Inverbervie in 1978 and staffed by Edell personnel.
Edzell’s primary role wasto detect, monitor and track Soviet submarines and other radio sources, from the North Atlantic to the Barentz Sea.
The 160 masts of the Elephant Cage covered 40 acres. Inside the Elephant Cage was Building 300, the operations centre with two levels below ground level. Needless to say, security in this building was very high.
In the 1960s a group of ELINT satellites was launched by the US and Edell was one of the minitoring stations.
Edzell and the other Scottish sites played an important part in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
