RAF St Mawgan

RAF St Mawgan is a Royal Air Force station located near St Mawgan and Newquay in Cornwall, England. It was originally opened as a civilian airfield in 1933. At the outbreak of the Second World War, it was requisitioned and named RAF Trebelzue, initially serving as a satellite of RAF St Eval. It was expanded with twin concrete runways and renamed RAF St. Mawgan in February 1943. In June 1943, the United States Army Air Forces took over, making major improvements including a new control tower and runway extension. The airfield was put under care and maintenance on 1 July 1947.

In 1951, it reopened as an RAF Coastal Command air base for the Air-Sea Warfare Development Unit RAF (ASWDU), conducting trials of new electronic equipment for maritime reconnaissance with Avro Shackleton and Avro Lancaster aircraft. During the Cold War, it hosted Nos 201, 206, and 42 Squadrons, flying Avro Shackletons and later Hawker-Siddeley Nimrods, and was the Headquarters of 22 (Helicopter) Squadron. Nuclear depth charges for anti-submarine warfare were stored at the United States Navy Atomic Weapons Department on the airbase. The Joint Maritime Facility (JMF), an Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) facility jointly operated by the Royal Navy and United States Navy, was commissioned in 1995 but closed in 2009.

In 2008, the runway part of the site was handed over to Cornwall County Council to become Newquay Airport, which also hosts Spaceport Cornwall. The remainder of the station continues to operate under RAF command. It was formerly a Search and Rescue training camp and home to 203(R) Squadron. Currently, RAF St Mawgan is home to the Defence Survival Training Organisation (DSTO), a tri-service unit providing 'Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract' (SERE) training. Other units include a small RAF workshop for aircraft component construction, No. 505 (Wessex) Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF), and a new police investigation unit for 120 Royal Military Police officers of the 1st Military Police Brigade, British Army, which uses the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System (HOLMES) for complex investigations.