RAF Croughton

RAF Croughton
Part of United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE)
Near Croughton, Northamptonshire in England
RAF Croughton Shown within Northamptonshire
Coordinates	51°59′15″N 001°11′10″W / 51.98750°N 1.18611°W / 51.98750; -1.18611Coordinates: 51°59′15″N 001°11′10″W / 51.98750°N 1.18611°W / 51.98750; -1.18611
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force (1939-1947) United States Air Force (1950-Present)
Site history
Built	1938 (1938)
In use	1939-1947 & 1950-present
Battles/wars	Second World War, Cold War
Garrison information
Garrison	501st Combat Support Wing
Occupants	422d Air Base Group
Airfield information
Elevation	137 metres (449 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 00/00  Grass 00/00  Grass 00/00  Grass

Royal Air Force Croughton or more simply RAF Croughton is a Royal Air Force station which is currently a United States Air Force communications station in Northamptonshire, England. It is southeast of the village of Croughton. The station is home to the 422nd Air Base Group and operates one of Europe's largest military switchboards and processes approximately a third of all U.S. military communications in Europe.

RAF Croughton houses the 422nd Air Base Group whose function is to provide installation support, services, force protection, and worldwide communications across the entire spectrum of operations. The group is located in the UK and supports NATO, US European Command, US Central Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, US Department of State operations and Ministry of Defence operations. The group sustains more than 450 C2 circuits and supports 25 percent of all European Theater to continental United States (CONUS) communications.

RAF Station Croughton was built in 1938, this station was first known as Brackley Landing Ground until 1940 when it became RAF Brackley. In July 1941 the name changed again and the station became RAF Croughton.

It consisted of 694 acres (2.81 km²) consolidated from three farms. Three grass runways with concrete taxiways dominated the high ground with the tower and other infrastructure buildings along the north side of the station and the slope leading up to the runways. In June 1940 the station became a satellite for RAF Upper Heyford for No 16 Operational Training Unit (No 16 OTU) to provide the unit with extra airfield space for night-flying training.

Much of this training was for Commonwealth pilots (Canadians, South Africans, Australians, and New Zealanders) on Handley Page Hampdens, Bristol Blenheims, and Wellington bombers. The unit fell under the operational control of the newly formed No 7 Group of RAF Bomber Command.