Chicksands - Definition

Chicksands was a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England (but not an airfield). It is named for Chicksands Priory, a 12th Century Gilbertine monastery now located within the perimeter of the camp. Chicksands is close to the small town of Shefford. The RAF acquired the priory in 1936 and established a signals gathering unit there. During World War II and throughout the Cold War, Chicksands was an important signals gathering station, part of the NATO's signals intelligence (SIGINT) network. Since 1950 it was subleased to the USAF 6940th radio squadron.

During the 1960s, a huge antenna array was constructed at Chicksands, a type known as the FLR-9, but known colloquially to base staff as the "elephant's cage". This massive array was visible for a considerable distance and was a well-known local landmark. It was dismantled in the 1990s. This array was part of a world-wide network of installations known collectively as "Iron Horse", a system for eavesdropping on HF communications. Each antenna had a range of up to 5000 km.

In World War II, Chicksands received German Enigma transmissions that were then passed to the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park. Since 1997 Chicksands has been the home of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC), and also a museum of defence intelligence open to the public by prior arrangement.

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