RAF reopens Shetland radar site Saxa Vord to sweep for Russia threat
A barren hill of tufted grassland and peat bog at the top of the Shetland Islands is to return to the front line of British defence in the face of a resurgent Russia.
Saxa Vord, on the island of Unst, featured in a secret list of Soviet targets in the UK during the Cold War, housing a radar station that scanned the Atlantic from Iceland to Norway. In 2006, the Ministry of Defence closed the station as the threat from Russia receded. Now the RAF is to reopen it. A team of about 30 specialists is set to arrive on the UK’s most northerly inhabited island, which saw its population halve to just over 600 after the closure.
In a letter to Alistair Carmichael, the local MP, the defence minister Harriett Baldwin confirmed that Saxa Vord would regain its role. She wrote: “I am pleased to confirm that work is due to begin next month to restore the radar capability there.”
Ryan Thomson, a North Isles councillor, hailed the announcement as “excellent news” for Unst, which has the same latitude as Anchorage in Alaska and is just 400 miles from the Arctic Circle. The nearest railway station is in Norway.
Pam Mouat, who worked at Saxa Vord, said: “Everyone here was devastated when the RAF left. They had been here for half a century. At one time there were 250 RAF personnel here, many with their families. We had a power station, a fully manned fire station and a medical centre with a dentist.”
The news follows tensions after Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea and Ukraine in 2014. Although there are no plans for permanent staff at the base, some have hopes. “They claim to be able to operate it remotely, but knowing the poor level of connectivity in the Northern Isles, I am sceptical,” said Carmichael.