RAF Wyton
NearSt Ives,Cambridgeshire in England
Canberra PR9 'XH170' which is RAF Wyton'sgate guardian
Verum Exquiro (Latin for 'Seek the Truth')[1]
Site information
Type	Royal Air Force station
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force
Controlled by	Strategic Command
Condition	Operational
Website	www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/raf-wyton
Location
RAF Wyton Shown within Cambridgeshire
Coordinates	52°21′26″N000°06′28″W / 52.35722°N 0.10778°W /52.35722; -0.10778
Grid reference	TL285741[2]
Site history
Built	1915 (1915)
In use	1916 – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Wing Commander Jim Doyle
Occupants	National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) Defence Infrastructure Organisation Defence Assurance and Information Security Defence Intelligence Estates Rationalisation Team RAF Wyton Area Voluntary Band
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: QUY,ICAO: EGUY,WMO: 03566
Elevation	40.2 metres (132 ft)AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 08/26 799 metres (2,621 ft) Grass
Source: RAF Wyton Defence Aerodrome Manual[3]

Royal Air Force Wyton or more simplyRAF Wyton (IATA:QUY,ICAO:EGUY) is aRoyal Air Force station nearSt Ives,Cambridgeshire,England. The airfield is decommissioned and the station is now under the command ofUK Strategic Command.

RAF Wyton is home to the National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI), which providesOpen Source Intelligence (OSINT) andGeospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) support toHM Armed Forces. It also contains theMinistry of Defence Police Headquarters, theDefence Infrastructure Organisation Regional Headquarters,42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic), and several other UK and Allied capabilities, authorities, and departments.^[4]

Located within the station, the Pathfinder Building is described as the "operations centre ofDefence Intelligence" and the “largest Top Secret,Five-Eyes by design, military intelligence fusion and assessment facility in the world."^[5][6][7]

Wyton has been a military airfield since 1916, when it was used for training by theRoyal Flying Corps and then its successor theRoyal Air Force (RAF).^[8]

The following squadrons were posted to Wyton between 1916 and 1935:

Second World War

During theSecond World War it was used primarily as a bomber base, flyingBristol Blenheim,de Havilland Mosquito andAvro Lancaster aircraft.^[18]

Bristol Blenheim IV (N6215) of 139 Squadron became the first RAF aircraft to enter Germany in the Second World War on 3 September 1939, piloted by Flying Officer A. McPherson. He was awarded the DFC.^[19]

In 1942 it became the home of thePathfinder Force under the command ofGroup CaptainDon Bennett.^[8]

The following squadrons were posted to Wyton between 1935 and 1939:

• No. 44 Squadron between 1937 and 1937.^[20]
• No. 114 Squadron between 1936 and 1939.^[14]
• No. 139 Squadron between 1936 and 1939.^[21]

The following squadrons were posted to Wyton between 1939 and 1945:

Cold War

After the war Wyton became home to theEnglish Electric Canberras of the Strategic Reconnaissance Force.^[27]Vickers Valiants arrived forNo. 543 Squadron in 1955 and aHandley Page Victor arrived for the Radar Reconnaissance Flight in 1959.^[27]

In 1974, threeNimrod R1s belonging toNo. 51 Squadron arrived for use in theElint andSigint role, and in 1975, the T17 and T17A Canberras ofNo. 360 Squadron arrived: this was a joint RAF andRN Squadron specialising inElectronic countermeasures training.^[27]

The following squadrons were posted to Wyton between 1946 and 2011:

Post-Cold War

In the early 1990s one of its pilots was rugby union player Flight LieutenantRory Underwood.^[37]

During a four-month period in 1989, two squadrons of U.S. Air ForceFairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II jets were operated out of RAF Wyton while the runway at their base, nearbyRAF Alconbury, was resurfaced.^[38]

In May 1995 both RAF Wyton andRAF Alconbury airfields were decommissioned and Wyton was formally amalgamated withRAF Brampton, and later withRAF Henlow to make all three locations a single RAF Station under a single station commander for administrative purposes.^[39] The airfield continued to host light aircraft for the Cambridge and LondonUniversity Air Squadrons until they both moved toRAF Wittering in 2015.^[40]

On 25 March 2013 it was decided to relocate all flying units from Wyton due to the high maintenance costs of the airfield.^[41]

Following the2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review the RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow formation was disbanded:RAF Henlow subsequently became a separate station again and RAF Brampton was demolished.^[42]

TheJoint Forces Intelligence Group (JFIG), a unit which was responsible for the collection ofsignals,geospatial,imagery andmeasurement and signature intelligence,^[43] moved from Feltham in Middlesex to RAF Wyton in 2013.^[44][45]42 Engineer Regiment relocated fromDenison Barracks inHermitage to RAF Wyton to co-locate with the Joint Forces Intelligence Group in July 2014^[46] and No. 1 Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Squadron moved fromRAF Marham to Wyton in April 2017.^[47]

In 2016, JFIG disbanded, and the bulk of its former units and capabilities were re-rolled to establish theNational Centre for Geospatial Intelligence.^[4] The NCGI is a1-star commanded organisation^[48] which in recent years has monitored military and terrorist activities taking place in real time, such as:

• HMS Diamond in operations against theHouthis in the Red Sea
• Unidentified radio signals coming from the Yemeni coast
• Different types of drones being used by Russia in Ukraine, including the physical analysis of RussianOrlan-10 and IranianShaheed 131 UAVs
• Development of ChineseDF-17 hypersonic missiles
• Pyongyang sending artillery rounds and missiles to Russian forces in Ukraine

It is also involved in homeland security and played a vital part in theSalisbury poisoning investigation by tracing theNovichok trail.^[5][7]

Notable units based at RAF Wyton.^[65][47][66]

• List of Royal Air Force stations
• RAF Wyton Area Voluntary Band

• Birtles, Philip (2012).UK Airfields of the Cold War. Midland Publishing.ISBN 978-1-85780-346-4.
• Jefford, C G (1988).RAF Squadrons. A comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF squadrons and their antecedents since 1912.Shrewsbury: Airlife.ISBN 1-85310-053-6.
• Lake, A (1999).Flying units of the RAF.Shrewsbury: Airlife.ISBN 1-84037-086-6.
• Sturtivant, R.; Hamlin, J. (2007).Royal Air Force flying training and support units since 1912. UK: Air-Britain (Historians).ISBN 978-0851-3036-59.
• RAF Annual Review 2012

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRAF Wyton.

• Official site
• RAF Wyton Area Voluntary Band

• Royal Air Force stations in Huntingdonshire
• Royal Air Force stations in Cambridgeshire
• Royal Flying Corps airfields
• Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom
• Military airbases established in 1916
• 1916 establishments in England

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2018
• Use British English from May 2013
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Articles containing Latin-language text
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata