RAF Brampton is a Royal Air Force station near Huntingdon

Huntingdon

Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...

 in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

. Formerly the home of RAF Support Command

RAF Support Command

-History:It was formed on 31 August 1973 by the renaming of Maintenance Command, with No. 90 Group being added to it. Its responsibilities included all logistical and maintenance support requirements of the RAF...

, it now houses several elements of Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), which itself was a result of a merger between the Defence Logistics Organisation

Defence Logistics Organisation

The Defence Logistics Organisation was a key element of the UK Ministry of Defence, responsible for supporting the armed forces throughout the various stages of an operation or exercise; from training, deployment, in-theatre training and conduct of operations, through to recovery and recuperation...

 (DLO) and the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), and provides a base for the Defence Security & Assurance Services and Defence Estates. It is now part of the combined station RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow

RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow

RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow is an RAF unit covering 3 distinct sites in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. The three sites, separately known as RAF Brampton, RAF Wyton and RAF Henlow, house a number of flying training, intelligence, security and other RAF support organisations.-RAF Brampton:**Joint Air...

.

History

Originally, RAF Brampton, RAF Wyton and RAF Henlow were separate stations. However, in the mid-1990s, with the closure of RAF Logistics Command

RAF Logistics Command

The Royal Air Force's Logistics Command was a command formed to provide logistics support for the RAF.-History:The Command was formed on 1 April 1994 and its role was to provide logistics support to the RAF...

 then at Brampton, and the cessation of operational flying from Wyton, the 2 Stations amalgamated to become Brampton Wyton. Henlow joined the group in 2001, and brought with it RAF Stanbridge

RAF Stanbridge

RAF Stanbridge is an RAF station situated on the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England.It is a satellite site of RAF Henlow and is one of the smallest RAF Stations having only two Station buildings and 24 married quarters...

, to produce the largest station in terms both of both geography and number of personnel in the RAF. The Station stretches from Brampton and Wyton, around 7 miles apart, in the north, southwards around 30 miles to Henlow, and then westwards some 20 miles (towards Leighton Buzzard) to Stanbridge.

Airfield

Brampton has no airfield, although Wyton

RAF Wyton

RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force station near St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, England.In terms of organisation RAF Wyton is now part of the combined station RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow, a merger of Wyton with two previously separate bases, RAF Brampton and RAF Henlow. Wyton is the largest of the three. It...

 and Henlow

RAF Henlow

RAF Henlow is a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, equidistant from Bedford, Luton and Stevenage. It houses the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, the RAF Signals Museum and 616 Volunteer Gliding Squadron.- History :...

 do. RAF Wyton is used by 57 Sqn

No. 57 Squadron RAF

-History:57 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed on 8 June 1916 at Copmanthorpe, Yorkshire. In December 1916 the squadron was posted to France equipped with the FE2d. The squadron re-equipped with Airco DH4s in May 1917 and commenced long range bombing and reconnaissance operations near...

, Cambridge and London University Air Squadron

University Air Squadron

University Air Squadrons are training units of the Royal Air Force which primarily provide basic flying training, force development and adventurous training to undergraduate students at British universities...

s and 5 AEF flying the Grob Tutor and RAF Henlow is used by 616 Volunteer Gliding Squadron

Volunteer Gliding Squadron

Volunteer Gliding Squadrons are Royal Air Force Flying Training Units , operating military Viking TX.1 and Vigilant T.1 gliders to train Air Cadets from the Combined Cadet Force and the Air Training Corps....

 flying the Grob Vigilant and leased out as a general aviation airfield. Wyton is also the main base for the DLO.

Operational units

• • Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre
  • Defence Security & Assurance Services

The station is also home to JARIC - The National Imagery Exploitation Centre

JARIC

JARIC - The National Imagery Exploitation Centre, part of the Intelligence Collection Group within United Kingdom Defence Intelligence, is an imagery analysis and intelligence centre based at RAF Brampton near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, and historically known as MI4, by which name it is still...

, which produces intelligence from all forms of imagery, and provides trained and experienced Service personnel to provide intelligence in support of operations.

External links

• RAF Brampton on Google Maps