Eastern Radar
The radar at Watton was not designed for Air Traffic Control when it was built, but as a Tactical Control Radar for 24 Air Defence Missile Wing's Bloodhound Mk 1 Squadrons at Marham, Watton and Rattlesden. The radar's design was started for the Army AA Command and the RAF got it as part of the transfer of SAGW (SAM) to Air Ministry control in 1952/3. The radar's performance against ECM was rubbish and its range of 150 miles made it not very useful for fighter control, which was a pity as it was the first volumetric radar in the UK and it had a state of the art data handing system. It was only used with Bloodhound from 1958 to Jan 1963, when RAF SAM command and control was passed directly to the Master Radar Staions at Pattrington and Bawdsey. After that, the three production 82's (Watton, North Luffeham and Lindholme) were sightly modified and six months later they were up and running as ATCRU's.