RAF Digby

RAF Digby RAF Scopwick
Near Scopwick Heath, Lincolnshire in England
RAF Digby station crest
RAF Digby Shown within Lincolnshire
Coordinates	53°05′27″N 000°26′03″W / 53.09083°N 0.43417°W / 53.09083; -0.43417Coordinates: 53°05′27″N 000°26′03″W / 53.09083°N 0.43417°W / 53.09083; -0.43417
Type	Joint Service Signals Organisation
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force
Site history
Built	1918 (1918)
In use	1918-Present
Battles/wars	First World War Second World War Cold War
Airfield information
Elevation	61 metres (200 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface NE/SW 1,800 metres (5,906 ft) Grass NW/SE 1,280 metres (4,199 ft) Grass W/E 880 metres (2,887 ft) Grass
No longer an active airfield, the station is now a joint UK/USA tri-service signals facility

JSSO Digby is a former Royal Air Force station which, since March 2005, has been operated by the Ministry of Defence's Joint Service Signals Organisation, part of the Intelligence Collection Group. Formerly an RAF training and fighter airfield, it is currently a tri-service military signals installation located near Scopwick, Lincolnshire, England. It is located 11.6 mi (18.7 km) south east of Lincoln and 132 mi (212 km) north of London. It houses the headquarters of the Joint Service Signals Organisation, and is the site of the country's oldest Royal Air Force station. The site is now the home to a number of communications- and signals-related organisations.

The post of Commander JSSO, who also holds the appointment of Head of Establishment for Digby, alternates every two years between an RAF officer or a British Army officer of OF5 rank (a group captain or a full colonel). The station contains personnel from all three of the British Armed Forces and allied forces.

The station's motto Icarus Renatus means Icarus Reborn and relates to the short period when the station was under 'care and maintenance' and then re-activated; the badge depicts a white crane superimposed over a maple leaf. The Douglas Digby Mk1 light bomber flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II was named after RAF Digby.

There are dated photographs that show that the airfield was already in use for flying training by Royal Naval pilots in the summer of 1917, although no documents supporting this have ever been found. The photographs show contemporary hangars, sheds and aircraft already in place around grassed runways and uniformed Royal Naval trainee pilots from the HMS Daedalus facility at Cranwell receiving instruction. What is on record is the minutes of a conference held at the Scopwick airfield in November 1917 that confirmed its suitability for conversion to a training depot station in its own right. On 12 January 1918 the War Office issued the authority notice for the site to be formally taken over under the Defence of the Realm Regulations.