Original Summary

National Trust / The concrete ring at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast had baffled staff and volunteers for years The purpose and function of a mysterious concrete ring at a former military testing site has been uncovered, the National Trust said. The 50m (164ft) ring at Orford Ness, Suffolk, had baffled staff and volunteers at the coastal nature reserve since the trust acquired the site in 1993. However, it said the mystery was solved after researchers Steve Clifton and Olaf Kirchner discovered the ring was part of a radar known as the R-System - designed to detect nuclear explosions and rocket launches during the Cold War. The pair met the creator of the R-System in the United States, who confirmed the ring was part of the system, but he had no idea it had been set up in England, the trust added. National Trust / An example of how the R-System looked in the 1960s in Roswell, New Mexico, in the United States A large part of Orford Ness was purchased by the War Department in 1913 and was closely guarded to prevent public access. Over the years, top-secret experiments were carried out for both World Wars and into the nuclear age. Today it is a 10-mile (16km) vegetated shingle spit, joined to the mainland just south of Aldeburgh, and is also home to a large colony of grey seals. The concrete ring was built by the US Air Force in the early 1960s and supported a steerable helical transmitter that could detect activity from thousands of miles away, the trust said. It believed only eight of these rings were constructed around the world, but by the end of the 1960s the technology was phased out and replaced by satellites. Google Earth / The Orford Ness ring as seen from above on the Suffolk coast Clifton and Kirchner first visited Orford Ness in 2018 and later joined the International Research Group Orford Ness to research the site. In 2020, they began looking at the ring and contacted 94-year-old Ed Lyon, the creator of the R-System. In October last year, the pair travelled to Maryland in the US to visit Lyon, who shared valuable photographic and video evidence from 60 years earlier. "It turned out that Ed himself had no idea that this radar system had been set up in England," Kirchner said. "He had to get security clearance to talk to us about it, and we listened in awe for over two hours, getting first-hand accounts of Cold War intelligence gathering systems. "It was a researcher's dream." More stories from Suffolk: Detectorists strike gold despite faulty headset Cancer patients call for early menopause support A village familiar with tragedy mourns Noah Woods Contributed / From left to right: Steve Clifton, Olaf Kirchner and Ed Lyon who met up in the United States While out in the US, the pair were able to visit two rings, including one in Roswell, New Mexico, which was compared with the one in Orford Ness. No one on the site had any knowledge about the purpose of the rings, but their orientation and other details were similar to those on Orford Ness, Kirchner said. "Due to the extreme secrecy under which they worked, people on Orford Ness never spoke of their projects and often took their details to their grave," Kirchner continued. "While the reports covering their work are now mostly declassified, finding them is often difficult." James Dobson/National Trust / Archaeologist Angus Wainwright said the Orford Ness ring had intrigued him for years Angus Wainwright, regional archaeologist for the National Trust's East of England region, said the structure had always intrigued him. "Like all the places we care for, our understanding of what happened on Orford Ness is constantly evolving," he said. "Research is important to us, and we are always trying to further our understanding. "Years ago, I quizzed some Orford veterans who worked in the building next door while the structure was operating, and they didn't know what it was for. "It's only through the tenacity of these researchers that its secret function has now been revealed." Do you have a story suggestion for Suffolk? Contact us below. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds , Facebook , Instagram and X .

中文概览

中文标题： 混凝土环之谜30年后解开

National Trust称，Suffolk Orford Ness一个50米混凝土环被确认是冷战时期R-System雷达的一部分，用于探测核爆炸和火箭发射。研究人员找到94岁的系统创建者Ed Lyon，但他此前不知该系统建在英国；该环由美国空军建于1960年代初，全球仅约八座，后被卫星技术取代。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：冷战雷达设施历史揭秘，非当前技术学习或硬件，归综合情报。
  • 信息来源：英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间：2026/9/22 13:50:07