// RAF, USAF and Navy
Military links and hotlines
Prestwick’s military air traffic links: the RAF watch room, ScATCC (Mil) and the D&D cell at Prestwick until 2013, the USAF 1952–66 and HMS Gannet.
What it is
- Military and civil traffic share the sky, so towers keep direct lines to military controllers. For Scotland those controllers were at Prestwick for decades.
At Prestwick
- Wartime: Transatlantic Aircraft Control formed at Prestwick in August 1941 under No 44 Group; control of TAC, Approach and Tower passed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 1 May 1946 (Air-Britain via atchistory). The 1944 cab photographs show RAF controllers.
- The RAF regional control centre became the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre (Military), ScATCC (Mil), in November 1947, with a Distress and Diversion (D&D) cell alongside it. It moved into NATS Prestwick Centre in 2009 and closed on 6 December 2013, when military area radar moved to 78 Squadron at Swanwick (Wikipedia; RAF).
- The USAF Military Air Transport Service used the airfield from 1952 to 1966 (ABCT; Secret Scotland gives 1953).
- The Royal Navy arrived in 1971: HMS Gannet flew Sea Kings, becoming RNAS Prestwick in 1994, with search and rescue until February 2016 (ABCT). HMS Gannet remains on the airfield with PPR, a phone line and an unmanned UHF UNICOM on 375.7 MHz (AIP).
Typical UK practice: The specific military hotlines in Prestwick tower today are not public. Typical UK practice is a direct line to the military area controllers (now Swanwick Mil) and the D&D cell.
// Through the eras
| Era | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1930s–40s | At Prestwick (sourced) | An RAF-run tower: the 1944 photographs show RAF controllers, with No 44 Group’s Transatlantic Aircraft Control nearby. |
| 1950s–60s | At Prestwick (sourced) | ScATCC (Mil) and the D&D cell at Prestwick; the USAF MATS base until 1966. |
| 1980s–90s | At Prestwick (sourced) | ScATCC (Mil) at Prestwick; HMS Gannet Sea Kings on the airfield. |
| Modern | At Prestwick (sourced) | Military area control at Swanwick since 2013; HMS Gannet on the airfield (AIP). |