Strategic Air Command in The United Kingdom - European Reconnaissance Center

European Reconnaissance Center

In the 1970s a growing SAC presence with refuelling tankers and aerial reconnaissance led to the reactivation of the 7th Air Division at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany in June 1978, and later being reassigned to RAF Mildenhall. The 7th AD controlled all SAC operations in Europe though the 306th Strategic Wing. Operations included B-52 deployments, U-2 strategic reconnaissance operations at RAF Alconbury and SR-71, KC-135 and RC-135 activities at Mildenhall.

With the arrival of the 306th SW, Mildenhall also became known as SAC's European Reconnaissance center. For many years various types of reconnaissance aircraft were observed regularly arriving and departing from the Mildenhall runway. Most of these aircraft were deployed from the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Offutt AFB, Nebraska.

For many years various types of Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft were observed regularly arriving and departing from the Mildenhall runway. Most of these aircraft had the capability to receive radar and radio signals from far behind the borders of the Communist Eastern Bloc. From Mildenhall the RC-135s flew ELINT and COMINT missions along the borders of Poland, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. The twenty or so specialists on board the RC-135s during such missions listened to and recorded military radio frequencies and communications.

In 1976 Detachment 4, 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing arrived at Mildenhall, which controlled rotational Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird operations from the base. It is not known when SAC first began making reconnaissance flights in Europe with these aircraft. There are indications that these fast aircraft have been operating in Europe since the end of the 1960s, with an SR-71 making a stopover in August 1970 at RAF Upper Heyford before a mission over the Middle East.

These aircraft carried out strategic photo reconnaissance missions for NATO and the USAF within the framework of the SALT I Agreement of 1972. Under this agreement the Soviet Union and the United States reached agreement on a partial freeze on the number of offensive nuclear weapons and these flights were to check that the Soviets were adhering to the agreement.

As well as the photo missions the 9th SRW gathered telemetry signals from Soviet missile systems. Such missions were carried out using the SR-71 and U-2/TR-1 aircraft and Boeing RC-135s from the 55th SRW. This information was analysed, together with information originating from reconnaissance satellites to present an intelligence picture for analysis to assemble a good picture of Soviet activities for national decision-making.

The 306th SW also played a major role in the success of Operation El Dorado Canyon, the American attack on the Libyan capital of Tripoli in 1986. In support of this 14-hour, radio-silence rendezvous mission, the unit deployed the largest number of refuelling aircraft ever flown over Europe and the largest fleet of KC-10's ever airborne at one time. In addition, the day after the attack 9th SW aircraft made several unmolested flights over the bombed military targets in and around Tripoli and Benghazi.

From their arrival until the departure of the last SR-71 on 18 January 1990, the 306th Strategic Wing's SR-71 and U-2 aircraft came to symbolize RAF Mildenhall in the local public's eye.

With the deactivation of Strategic Air Command in 1992 and the end of the Cold War, current activities at Mildenhall are now controlled by Air Combat Command and USAFE.