On 3 November 1958, RAF Signals Command was formed at RAF Medmenham by raising No. 90 (Signals) Group to command status. Air Vice-Marshal Leslie Dalton-Morris became the first Air Officer Commanding of RAF Signals Command. The change gave an established technical organisation a command-level place within an RAF increasingly dependent on communications, navigation aids and electronic equipment.
The headquarters inherited responsibilities extending across the service’s telecommunications at home and overseas. Its work connected the practical demands of flying with the infrastructure needed to direct, support and sustain operations. For a force operating sophisticated jet aircraft and maintaining a strategic nuclear capability, that infrastructure carried considerable operational importance.
From wartime inheritance to command status
No. 90 (Signals) Group had been formed in April 1946, bringing together functions inherited from wartime organisations concerned with communications, radar and electronic warfare. The post-war RAF therefore possessed an existing body of specialist expertise and administrative machinery on which Signals Command could build.
The elevation at Medmenham reflected the scale and technical importance of those responsibilities. Command status placed the organisation under a dedicated senior headquarters while preserving the underlying work developed during the group’s earlier existence. The anniversary marked a change in the management of RAF signals, with its origins rooted in the service’s wartime and immediate post-war experience.
Maintaining the electronic infrastructure
The organisation’s principal activities included controlling and maintaining RAF telecommunications in Britain and overseas. It also undertook the installation and siting of ground radio equipment. These tasks involved the physical systems through which information could pass between dispersed stations and headquarters, supporting the coordination of an air force with commitments across considerable distances.
Cryptographic equipment formed another part of its installation responsibilities. Communications required both dependable transmission and provision for protecting the information carried. Equipment, specialist support and the wider network had to function together for that capability to remain useful in daily service.
Its duties also extended to flight performance appraisal and calibration of radio navigation, approach and landing aids. Such work linked ground installations directly to the aircraft using them. Checking their performance from the air helped establish how the aids operated under flying conditions, making calibration an essential practical contribution to their reliability.
Electronic warfare added a further specialised field. Responsibilities included the design, manufacture, installation and major servicing of ground and airborne electronic-warfare equipment. These duties brought together specialist engineering, equipment support and the practical requirements of RAF operations.
Supporting the Cold War force
During the Cold War, dispersed forces and increasingly complex aircraft placed sustained demands on communications and electronic support. Long-range operations depended on the exchange of information, while navigation and approach aids helped crews operate the aircraft entrusted to them. Signals Command’s responsibilities supported these connected requirements through specialist technical work.
Its contribution was embedded in the equipment and systems used across the service. A radio installation, a calibrated aid and a cryptographic system each fulfilled a distinct purpose. Together, such capabilities helped turn aircraft, stations and headquarters into a coordinated operational force.
Return to group status
On 1 January 1969, Signals Command was reduced to group status within Strike Command. The reorganisation brought its responsibilities into a different command structure, continuing the signals work on which RAF operations depended.
The period of independent command status had recognised the breadth of that task. Through telecommunications, navigation support and electronic-warfare equipment, the organisation maintained capabilities integral to the operation of the Cold War RAF.