Originally Posted by
Pontius Navigator
Indeed there was.
At the time Ouston was also the only site with a jammer. This was from the B50 and required aircraft to fly a North easterly approach against a specific target that changed weekly. Shame really as East Anglia (Brantub) had had 3 jammers which would have given much better training .
This is really interesting, and I've always been curious re these two Pembroke photos I took at Ouston in early 1966 (It was then being used as the temporary Newcastle Airport). This is what I have written about them on my "RAF Ouston Research" website on google;
"This set of photos contains much of interest. The first two show various radar-equipped trailer vehicles in the background, and these were at Ouston for several years, parked well away from curious eyes. It is possible that their purpose was to track the RAF V-bombers that regularly in the early 1960s used Newcastle as a training target for low-level attacks from the West. Nuclear capable white painted Avro Vulcans regularly came low level along the Tyne Valley, climbing sharply and very loudly at Benwell, before banking sharply away at the top of their climb. This was the standard 'lob-bombing ' nuclear attack profile, and it is likely that the mobile radar units at Ouston were there to monitor the training, and award 'marks out of ten' to the trainees."
I'm not ex-RAF, just a former Air Cadet, so I was trying to 'put two and two together'. During my school days at Rutherford in Newcastle (west end near Benwell), our assemblies and lessons were often shattered by the noise of a Vulcan or Victor climbing out on full power. All conversation ceased for several minutes. And one glorious morning it all co-incided with a new Centurion Tank being driven from Vickers, Scotwood, along the adjacent West Road down to the docks. That was the only thing that could top a Vulcan on full power!
Clarification and comments welcome, please.