RAF St Mawgan

RAF St. Mawgan
RAF St Mawgan Crest Station Crest
Role	Search and Rescue
Location	Near Newquay, Cornwall
Date Founded	1933

RAF St. Mawgan is a Royal Air Force station near Newquay in Cornwall.

Opened as a civilian airfield in 1933, it was requisitioned at the outbreak of World War II and named RAF Trebelzue, initially as a satellite of nearby RAF St. Eval but was expanded with twin concrete runways. In February 1943 it was re-named RAF St. Mawgan. In June 1943, the United States Army Air Forces took over and carried out a number of major improvements, including a new control tower and a further extension of the main runway. The base was put under maintenance on 1 July 1947.

In 1951 it reopened as a Coastal Command base used for maritime reconnaissance, flying Avro Lancaster and Avro Shackleton aircraft. In 1956 with 220 and 228 Long Range Reconnaissance Squadrons. These Squadrons were later renumbered 201 and 206 and joined by 42 Sqn. It also became the Headquarters of 22 (helicopter) Sqn. In 1965 201 and 206 Sqn moved to Kinloss and in came the Maritime Operational Training Unit. 7 Sqn Canberras operated here as target tugs from 1970 until 1982, with 22 Sqn moving out in 1974. 42 Sqn and 236 OCU moved to RAF Kinloss in 1992 taking away its fixed wing station based aircraft, the Nimrods which had been at the base since 1969.

Current Role

RAF St Mawgan is primarily used as a Search and Rescue base and is home to 203(R) Squadron, equipped with Sea King helicopters, as well as the SAR HQ and maintenance centre for RAF Sea Kings. No 1 Squadron RAF Regiment is based there, as is the School of Combat Survival and Rescue. St. Mawgan remains a Military Emergency Diversion Airfield with its 2745m main runway, and commercial flights operate from the co-located Newquay Airport.

St Mawgan is also the home of the Joint Maritime Facility, commissioned 18 August 1995, a command for undersea tracking operated by the Royal Navy and United States Navy.It is said that the word ‘Facility’ was used because the British and Americans could not agree on the spelling of Centre!

The Future of RAF St. Mawgan

According to the round of defence cuts announced in 2004, RAF operational flying will cease in 2006, with the Search and Rescue operations moving to RAF Valley. The BBC reported on Thursday, 21 July, 2005 that No. 1 Squadron RAF Regiment is moving to RAF Honington and the 2625 Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) squadron is to disband.

In 2005, RAF St Mawgan was one of the bases shortlisted to house the new Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) in 2013, but in November 2005 it was announced by Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram, that it would be going to RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. [1]

It was announced in April 2006 that the Search and Rescue (SAR) force would stay until October 2007 in order to allow Newquay Airport to reach civilian aviation standards needed after the MoD leaves.[2] The BBC report stated "when the military presence is completely withdrawn, the civilian airport, which uses the same site, will have to provide its own runway maintenance, firefighter cover and air traffic control."

External links

• Joint Maritime Facility
• RAF St. Mawgan section of helis.com Helicpoter History site

References

• Keith A Saunders, RAF St Mawgan, 1998, Britiain in old photographs series, 126pp, Universal Books Ltd, Kent UK, ISBN 1840131950