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Chain Home
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{{short description|Radar defence system in Britain in World War II}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox radar | name = Chain Home | image = File:Chain Home radar installation at Poling, Sussex, 1945. CH15173.jpg | caption = Chain Home at RAF [[Poling, West Sussex]] | country = [[United Kingdom]] | designer = [[Air Ministry Experimental Station|AMES]] | manufacturer = [[Metropolitan-Vickers]], [[AC Cossor]] | introdate = 1938 | number = | type = [[Early warning radar|Early warning]] | frequency = Between 20 and 55 MHz | PRF = 25 pps | beamwidth = 150º | pulsewidth = 6 to 25 µs | RPM = | range = {{convert|160|km|abbr=on}} | altitude = | diameter = | azimuth = 150º | elevation = 2.5 to 40º | precision = {{convert|8|km|abbr=on}} or better ({{convert|1|km}} typical) in range, ±12º in azimuth (typically less) | power = 100 kW to 1 MW depending on version | other names = RDF, RDF1, AMES Type 1, AMES Type 9 | total built = }} '''Chain Home''', or '''CH''' for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal [[Early-warning radar|early warning]] [[radar]] stations built by the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft.<ref>{{cite web |title=The prototype CH system – 1939… Chain, Home… Operational |url=http://histru.bournemouth.ac.uk/Oral_History/Talking_About_Technology/radar_research/chain_home_operational.html |date=1995–2009 |publisher=Bournemouth University |access-date=23 August 2009}}</ref> Initially known as '''RDF''', and given the official name '''Air Ministry Experimental Station Type 1''' ([[Air Ministry Experimental Station|AMES]] Type 1) in 1940, the radar units were also known as Chain Home for most of their life. Chain Home was the first early warning radar network in the world and the first military radar system to reach operational status.{{sfn|Neale|1985|p=73}} Its effect on the war made it one of the most powerful systems of what became known as the "Wizard War".<ref>{{cite web |first= Roger |last=Connor |url= https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/d-day-and-wizard-war |website= National Air and Space Museum |title= D-Day and the Wizard War |date=5 June 2014}}</ref>{{sfn|Jones|1978}} In late 1934, the [[Tizard Committee]] asked radio expert [[Robert Watson-Watt]] to comment on the repeated claims of radio [[death ray]]s and reports suggesting Germany had built some sort of radio weapon. His assistant, [[Arnold Wilkins]], demonstrated that a death ray was impossible but suggested radio could be used for long-range detection. In February 1935, a successful demonstration was arranged by placing a receiver near a [[BBC]] [[Shortwave radio|short wave]] transmitter and flying an aircraft around the area. Using commercial short wave radio hardware, Watt's team built a prototype pulsed transmitter and by June 1935 it detected an aircraft that happened to be flying past. Basic development was completed by the end of the year, with detection ranges on the order of {{cvt|100|mi}}. In 1936 attention was focused on a production version, and early 1937 saw the addition of height finding. The first five stations, covering the approaches to London, were installed by 1937 and began full-time operation in 1938. Over the next two years, additional stations were built while the problem of disseminating the information to the [[fighter aircraft]] led to the first integrated [[ground-controlled interception]] network, the [[Dowding system]].{{efn|Older works generally refer to the entire network as Chain Home as well, but RAF wartime materials and more modern sources clearly separate the radar network from the reporting chain.}} By the time the war started, most of the east and south coasts had radar coverage. Chain Home proved important during the [[Battle of Britain]] in 1940. CH systems could detect enemy aircraft while they were forming over France, giving RAF commanders ample time to marshal their aircraft in the path of the raid. This had the effect of [[force multiplication|multiplying the effectiveness]] of the RAF to the point that it was as if they had three times as many fighters, allowing them to defeat frequently larger German forces. The Chain Home network was continually expanded, with over 40 stations operational by the war's end, including mobile versions for use overseas. Late in the war, when the threat of ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' bombing had ended, the CH systems were used to detect [[V2 missile]] launches. UK radar systems were wound down after the war but the start of the [[Cold War]] led to the Chain Home radars being pressed into service in the new [[ROTOR]] system until replaced by newer systems in the 1950s. Only a few of the original sites remain.
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