Lookout: Wing Commander Phil Cox, pictured outside the radar tower at Fylingdales.

FORTY years ago three gigantic, sinister-looking golfballs that loomed over the North York Moors were the source of the terrifying "four minute warning."
At the height of the Cold War that was all the time we would have between RAF Fylingdales detecting the launch of Russian nuclear missiles to being engulfed in a giant mushroom cloud.

Today the Cold War is just a memory and the famous golfballs are long gone, but the base continues to play a key role as the West's first line of defence against new threats that may in future come out of the blue.

Military experts fear the collapse of the Soviet Union has not brought an end to the menace posed by missiles still being developed both by friendly countries and what President Bush calls "rogue states."

And in the post-9/11 world newer threats from terrorists and from the militarisation of space make the existence of Fylingdales even more of a priority for both the British Government, which owns the base, and the Americans, who largely pay for its hi-tech equipment.

Controversial work begins this month to upgrade the ageing computer network that links Fylingdales with the US Space Command Centre deep within Cheyenne Mountain at Colorado Springs. When completed in 18 months the British early warning base will form a key part of the US Government's controversial Missile Defence Shield dubbed "the Son of Star Wars".

During the work the base population will be boosted by 80 US contractors and hundreds of technicians working for Boeing and a number of British firms.

Opponents of the scheme fear it will kick-start a new international arms race and lead to a rise in the emission of electromagnetic radiation from the base, which some local people believe poses a long-term health hazard.

But the base's new station officer, Wing Commander Philip Cox, is keen to dispel misconceptions about what goes on inside. So far protests from campaigners have been muted, but security around the base has been beefed up with additional police patrols.

And top brass have been keen to adopt an "open door" policy to reassure the local community there is nothing sinister to hide. They are giving guided tours around some of the most sensitive parts of the base in a bid to break down barriers and dispel myths about their work.

"There is no need for anyone to be concerned about the work going on here," said Wing Co Cox, who three months ago swapped the heat of the Iraqi desert for the wilds of North Yorkshire.

"When the upgrade is complete nothing will change in terms of the strength and type of radar emissions from the base. We will continue to do what we have been doing for the last 12 years, which is watching for missiles and tracking objects in orbit. Only we will be able to do this more effectively and efficiently."

Fylingdales was first opened in 1963 as the third and last in a chain of long-range radar stations that formed part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.

The base cost £46m with the majority of it paid by the US Government.

It is linked to two other similar stations in Greenland and Alaska to provide an invisible fence that would trigger alarms in the event of a missile attack.

And while its primary work still remains "early warning" staff point to the base's secondary function of tracking satellites and space junk as the real reason why the upgrade of the base has become such a priority for the 21st century.

When work first began on the base in 1960 the space race had hardly begun. But today it is estimated that there are 28,000 man-made objects in orbit around the Earth.

This includes satellites and the International Space Station but also thousands of pieces of junk travelling at thousands of miles an hour.

Every single one of these is logged by Fylingdales which tracks their movements in orbit and warns if they begin to form hazards.

When the Russian satellite Mir re-entered earth's atmosphere two years the base tracked its every move before it crashed harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean.

But had it strayed from its course Fylingdales would have played a key role in raising the alarm.
"Space is an infinitely huge place but earth's orbit is getting busier every day," said Wing Commander Cox. "There are tens of thousands of objects up there and some are extremely hazardous.

"Even a fleck of paint or a tiny piece of space junk travelling at thousands of miles per hour can cause a huge amount of damage, as the loss of the Space Shuttle proved, so as we reach further out into space we need to know where all this stuff is."

But Wing Commander Cox said the base provided one of the best insurance policies a country could ever have in times of trouble and uncertainty abroad.

"During the Cold War we knew who our enemy was and where the threat came from," he said.
"In these tense times the threats are less easy to see and terrorists particularly are very inventive people.

"They have demonstrated a range of tactics to cause harm and mayhem.
"The threat from missiles still exists and many nations continue to develop them. Heaven forbid they should ever fall into the wrong hands."