Stop press: Amazing new Cobra Mist resources

I have discovered a superb new online resource for information about Project Cobra Mist. Cobra Mist is the factual basis for Cold Witness, and was a gigantic over-the-horizon radar array constructed on the East Coast of Suffolk in the '60s. The premise for Cold Witness is that the original radar transmitter, capable of generating a 10MW beam, was modified into a very crude radio beam weapon. It is possible that the USA's Strategic Defence Initiative was inspired by this discovery ... after all, both the USAF and NSA had a hand in running Cobra Mist.

This is an aerial photo of the facility in 1972, and gives a good idea of the awesome scale of the transmitter array. The distance from the blockhouse (upper left) to the switching matrix (bottom right) is over half a mile.



This is an incredibly valuable shot: the entrance to the facility itself! A legendary setting in the book, this is the first time I've actually seen a picture of it!



All I can say about this one is WOW. It's a photo of the main corridor leading to the transmitter linear-amplifier chambers, and it looks exactly as I imagined it. Typically spartan and metallic, windowless, very much reminiscent of the Cold War.



Apparently this is a small "faraday screened room", protected by strips of berylium copper as a shield against RF sources. This is incredibly significant because it PROVES that A) The array, and possibly the transmitting gear, was powerful enough to interfere with electronics; B) The engineers who designed the place were aware of this fact. I'm excited about this because although I've long suspected that the blockhouse contained shielded areas, I'd never been able to find any evidence. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for the rewrite.



Here's a close-up of the door into the shielded room. Just look at those beefy copper door seals!



All photos belong to "WW2 and Cold War History in Britain", and can be viewed at a larger size and in their original context at Orford Ness: A Place Apart.

I would also like to draw your attention to this quote:

"... it may be that the true effectiveness of the setup was much greater. A lot of data is still classified on this matter. It should also be borne in mind that at the time this site was abandoned as Cobra Mist, there were missile treaties on the table. This would not be the first, or last, time that US technology was to be used as a bargaining point."

This is highly significant. The official story is that Cobra Mist was abandoned due to massive technical problems stemming from a mysterious interference signal, but it is hinted here that perhaps the US promised to dismantle Cobra Mist in return for a consession from Russia or China. This is backed up by the fact that missile treaties were "on the table" at the time.

And take a look at this:

"There is evidence of special security arrangements to protect the intelligence gathered, such as isolated mains power circuits, doors with special locking arrangements and so on. This was a heavily staffed, highly secure operation."

I love being proved right! The facility looks fairly low-security from the outside--as my last proofreader mentioned when I showed him pics--but I've always had reason to believe that the designers put a lot of effort into security. The fact that they kept the security low-key stems from the fact that they didn't want to arouse the suspicion of the locals ... and THAT is one of the key underpinnings of the story of Project Cold Witness.

It's so nice to actually have evidence to support my theories, instead of the usual mish-mash of rumour and conjecture.