In April 1942 the construction of a new GCI radar station started at Sandwich on the south side of Ash Road to the west of the town, with an Intermediate Transportable GCI installation completed by August of that year using an AMES Type8b radar. The first GCI’s were mobile, at the insistence of the Air Ministry who required maximum flexibility from the equipment and were the first phase of a three part programme, i.e.: Mobile, Intermediate (mobile or transportable) and then Final. after detection by the network of reporting Chain Home reporting radars. The GCI station enabled fighter aircraft under their control to intercept hostile aircraft. The Ground Control Intercept (GCI) was designed to fill this gap, providing inland coverage to Filter Rooms, Sector Operations Centres (SOC) and Gun Operations Rooms (GOR) in addition to the control of defence fighters combating enemy aircraft by day and night. The coastal CH and CHL radars all looked out from the UK, leaving a void inland, this void relied on the Observer Corps (later Royal Observer Corps) for overland reporting, which was not effective in bad weather or at night. Written by Nick Catford on 01 February 1998.įollowing the outbreak of WW2 and the evaluation of the Chain Home (CH) and Chain Home Low (CHL) radars under operational conditions, a requirement were identified for control radar to aid the fighter interception of enemy aircraft.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |