Chronology

The construction history of Cold War building in the United Kingdom may be broken down into three discrete periods.Each of these has a very distinctive collection,or assemblage,of sites and buildings defined principally by contemporary defence strategy and technology.Globally,as more national studies of Cold War building projects are undertaken,other distinctive regional and national chronologies of its built heritage will begin to emerge.For example,in the 1960s there were few defence related buildings in the United Kingdom,which contrasts with the huge resources applied to the third-front construction projects in China.

MAIN PHASES OF COLD WAR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

●First Cold War 1946-1962

●Sustained balance/deterrence 1963-1979(https://www.daowen.com)

●Second Cold War 1980-1989

During the earliest period,defined as the First Cold War,the United Kingdom's defences were modernised to fight the Cold War with new technologies,including jet aircraft,atomic weapons,guided missiles,and increasingly sophisticated electronic surveillance systems.During the early 1950s selected airfields were rebuilt to support the nuclear deterrent forces of the Royal Air Force's(RAF)V-force and units of the United States Air Force.These new,heavy jet aircraft required longer concrete runways,parking areas,new types of bomb stores,and specialised buildings to maintain the jets'complex engines and electronic components.At the end of the decade these were joined by United States Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles,although they were manned by RAF crews.To protect these bases the country's radar defences were renewed with many control facilities placed in underground bunkers.To counter high flying jet bombers,surface to air missiles were installed and airfields adapted for new air defence fighters. Across the country a network of protected regional war rooms was created for emergency civil government.

By the final years of the decade the pace of construction slackened.New generations of radar equipment rendered some of the early 1950s radar sites obsolete and as the United States began to deploy new long range intercontinental ballistic missiles there was less need for air bases in the United Kingdom.But the early assumptions made by western defence planners were thrown into disarray in August,1953,when the former Soviet Union detonated a hydrogen bomb.British officials calculated that ten 10-megaton bombs could effectively destroy the United Kingdom and its ability to wage war(Hennessey,2010).The futility of pursuing civil defence measures essentially based on Second World War models was recognised and successively fewer resources were devoted to creating facilities to protect and care for the civil population.

During the 1960s the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's strategy to deter the perceived expansionist plans of the former Soviet Union evolved from massive nuclear retaliation into Flexible Response that might encompass political,economic and military means.This new policy envisaged that any aggression would be met with a graduated response,which might include a limited conventional war in Europe fought over days or weeks.To underpin this plan it was crucial that vital defence facilities were protected from pre-emptive attacks and across Western Europe command centres and main airfields were extensively rebuilt.The necessity to protect key airfields was underlined by the destruction wrought by the Israeli air force on those of its neighbouring states in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.Across Europe hardened aircraft shelters became a standard feature of frontline airfields primarily providing shielding from blast,while the more complex command centres with elaborate filtration equipment guarded against the effects of chemical and biological agents,and nuclear fallout.