Qualla: RAF Brawdy

RAF Brawdy: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waterborough, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the late 1970s, anyone driving past Brawdy on the A487 between St Davids and Haverfordwest could see two airfields in one. To the south of the runway, RAF Hawks from No. 79 and No. 234 Squadrons screamed through low-level tactical training, painting black streaks of jet exhaust across the Pembrokeshire sky. To the north, behind double fences and the studied vagueness of a sign that said only "Royal Air Force Station Brawdy," sat a small American installation that officially conducted oceanographic research. It did not conduct oceanographic research. It listened for Soviet submarines passing through the eastern Atlantic, and for twenty-one years its eavesdropping on the GIUK gap was one of the most closely held secrets of the Cold War.

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Image: Waterborough | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Brawdy: From Coastal Command Outpost

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RuthAS, CC BY 3.0. Brawdy opened in February 1944 as a satellite airfield, taking over duties that had overwhelmed nearby RAF St Davids. Halifaxes of No. 517 Squadron flew long meteorological sorties out over the Atlantic, gathering the weather data that made the D-Day forecast possible. Coastal Co...

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Image: RuthAS | CC BY 3.0

RAF Brawdy: The Ears in the Atlantic

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim A Lee at English Wikipedia, Public domain. In 1974 the Royal Navy paid off Brawdy and the RAF took it back, but that same year a new tenant moved in next door. The United States Navy established Naval Facility Brawdy on April 5, 1974, the terminus of newly laid SOSUS hydrophone arrays that watched the deep water approache...

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Image: Tim A Lee at English Wikipedia | Public domain

RAF Brawdy: Hunters in the Sky

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Schleiffert from Holland, CC BY-SA 2.0. While the Americans listened, the RAF taught its young pilots to kill. No. 229 Operational Conversion Unit relocated from RAF Chivenor in September 1974, took the new title 1 Tactical Weapons Unit, and turned Brawdy into the gateway between Valley's basic jet course and the front...

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Image: Rob Schleiffert from Holland | CC BY-SA 2.0

RAF Brawdy: The Cold War Ends

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. Both halves of Brawdy wound down together. Flying training ceased on August 31, 1992, and No. 202 Squadron's Sea King search-and-rescue helicopters lingered until July 1994. NAVFAC Brawdy decommissioned on October 1, 1995, its arrays "remoted" to the consolidated Joint Maritime F...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

RAF Brawdy: What Remains

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Llywelyn2000, CC BY-SA 4.0. Drive past Brawdy now and the wartime hangars, the old hard-stands, the control tower, and the perimeter fences are all still visible against the green Pembrokeshire hills. A Hawker Hunter FGA.9 once stood as gate guardian, tribute to the type's twenty-eight-year service. Spitfir...

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Image: Llywelyn2000 | CC BY-SA 4.0