Orford Ness was the site of an astounding variety of military activities during the Cold War. Besides a continuation of conventional bomb ballistics (an activity which began in the Great War, and carried on through almost the entire history of the establishment), the work was expanded to cover rockets (a rocket range was established on King’s Marsh); more advanced lethality and vulnerability trials, and the establishment of a model range to investigate ballistic behaviour. These activities were carried out on behalf of RAE, RRE, and A&AEE Martlesham Heath.
From the mid 1950s, even more expansion to accommodate the environmental testing of atomic weapons took place, and AWRE Orford Ness was established.
One of the last Cold War activities on Orford Ness was the establishment of the US/UK over-the-horizon-radar complex known as Cobra Mist.
Many British weapons programmes, both conventional and nuclear, owed a lot to the efforts on Orford Ness for trials and tests. AWRE were tasked with testing of Britain’s first atomic weapon, Blue Danube, besides successors like Violet Club, Red Beard and the WE177.
an article by IRGON researcher Barry Searle on Britain’s first atomic weapon.
The first phase of AWRE development on the Ness
The second phase of AWRE development on the Ness
The title photo shows the Black beacon area in 1956. The 1920s era wooden structure surrounded by aerials and buildings to support telemetry trials.© Crown Copyright / AWE 2021. Contains public sector information licenced under the Open Government Licence V3.0.