Peripheral vision

Operation Rotor, radar infrastructure and state power in Scotland 1950–1957

Abstract

Formulated as the Cold War was intensifying in 1950, Operation Rotor was intended to restore the Royal Air Force’s control and reporting organisation on Britain’s east coast. Planning exposed the country’s vulnerability to a Soviet attack from the north and new radar stations were built in northern and western Scotland. Rotor brought about a northerly reorientation of Britain’s air defences that, along with economic and technological factors, ultimately saw them integrated within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s intercontinental early warning system. Like other major defence projects of the period, Rotor also had a significant effect on Scottish society as wartime mass organisation was revived and Royal Air Force units encountered local communities, often in rural areas. The new infrastructure had developmental potential, bringing with it electricity and other modernisation, but Rotor’s colossal cost and the overriding priority of national security could likewise be at odds with local needs. This article will examine why Scotland became of greater strategic importance in the 1950s and also assess Rotor’s societal impact and its implications for British state power.