 Its radar (housed in a fibre glass or "golf ball" protective dome) provides long-range coverage of the south western approaches to the United Kingdom.Previously known as RAF Portreath, the station was built during 1940, opened in March 1941 and had a varied career during the Second World War, initially as a RAF Fighter Command station, from October 1941 as a ferry stop-over for aircraft bound to/from North Africa and the Middle East, as a temporary stop-over for USAAF and RCAF units, and then as a Coastal Command station.By the end of the war, it had run down and in May 1950 was handed back to the government by the RAF.