The RAF Fylingdales phased array radar in North Yorkshire supports U.K. and U.S. missile defense and space surveillance. Credit: U.K. Space Command
By Larisa Brown,
Published by The Times, 22 March 2026
Using a sophisticated radar system, troops at RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire are providing allied forces with early warnings of retaliatory attacks
Before America fired the first missiles at Iran, space and cyber commands disrupted, degraded and blinded Tehran’s ability to see, communicate and respond, General Dan Caine, the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in the first days of the war.
The activities of these shadowy forces are rarely mentioned but are becoming increasingly central to modern warfare.
Now, The Times can disclose in detail the role UK space command has played to detect Iranian retaliatory strikes from day one of Operation Epic Fury.
Using a sophisticated space radar system, British troops based at RAF Fylingdales in the North York Moors are working with the Americans to detect when Iran fires missiles and provide early warning to forces in the region.
US satellites can detect the sudden blast of heat and flash of missiles as they take off from their launchers in Iran and then merge that data with the information produced by the Fylingdales’ radar to calculate the type and likely impact location of the missiles.
If a missile is heading in the direction of allied troops — or civilians — then the missile will have to fly through Fylingdales’ radio waves, setting off the sensors back in North Yorkshire.
This information is then passed almost instantaneously to any vulnerable troops, who can take cover, helping to save lives. Air raid sirens sound at bases across the region.
No 2 Space Warning Squadron, supported by No 1 Space Operations Squadron, has been tasked with the vital detection work.
Opened in 1963, RAF Fylingdales is a critical military radar station that provides the first line of defence against ballistic missile threats. It ensures the impossibility of a surprise missile assault on the nation, or troops based overseas.
Military personnel have long worked with America’s Space Delta 4, reinforcing missile warnings for the US and its international allies.
Fylingdales makes up one of three stations in the American Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, a chain of radars linked across the North Atlantic. The mission there — irrespective of political differences between President Trump and Sir Keir Starmer — has continued regardless.
The BMEWS is a Cold War-era, US-led radar network designed to detect Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Other major sites are in Greenland and Alaska.
The wider satellite and radar system would have picked up the two intermediate-range ballistic missiles headed towards Diego Garcia, a joint UK-US military base, on Friday, warning troops in the region of what was coming.
It is understood that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, No 2 Space Warning Squadron has tracked about 4,000 launches a year, more than ten a day. However, the figure has dramatically increased since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28.
The system is being used by those based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Its detection of missiles prompted two air raid sirens on the base when John Healey, the defence secretary, was visiting this month. Troops stationed there have a nine-minute warning from when missiles take off from Iran. This gives them time to take cover and prepare their response.
The UK provides early warning to other partners in the Gulf, it is understood.
Military chiefs believe those who do not utilise space assets in war will lose against those who do.
Echoing Caine’s comments about the importance of space, Major General Paul Tedman, the UK defence space chief, said in a recent speech that space was now the “central nervous system” of modern warfare. He said that it allows British forces to use satellites to find targets, communicate with each other, and guide drones and missiles to their targets, all at machine speed.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in July last year, he warned: “Space literally fuels our way of life and underpins our way of war. This national dependency on space is increasingly being held at risk by space risks and threats.”
The US military calls this space-based targeting system a “kill chain” and it is proving highly effective in Ukraine and Iran.
The military is developing a UK “digital targeting web”, designed to “connect sensors, shooters and decision-makers” across the land, sea, air and space domains”.
President Trump’s proposed $180 billion Golden Dome system, announced in May last year, will enhance this system with space-based detection, warning and tracking, and for the first time “interceptors” to destroy missiles at all stages of flight.
See: Original Article
