Remote Radar Head Saxa Vord or RRH Saxa Vord (aka RAF Saxa Vord), is a Royal Air Force radar station located on the island of Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. As of July 2019 it is once more a fully operational radar station, after closure in 2006. The station's motto Praemoneo de Periculis ('Premonition of Peril') reflects its role. RAF Saxa Vord is further north than Saint Petersburg in Russia, and on the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. The station was named after Saxa Vord, which is the highest hill on Unst at . It holds the unofficial British record for wind speed, which in 1992 was recorded at — just before the measuring equipment blew away. History Early years The island of Unst has played an important part in the defence of the UK since the outbreak of the Second World War. By 1945, there were two radar sites on the island – one on Saxa Vord hill, and the other at Skaw on the east coast. This latter is the older, being built in 1941, and was part of the Chain Home radar network as part of the defences of the RAF Sullom Voe flying boat base. Skaw closed in 1947. ROTOR era As part of the post-war ROTOR radar network, Saxa Vord was selected as the site to host a new long-range radar as the northernmost point in a network of radars covering the entirety of the British Isles. As part of upgrades carried out for ROTOR, Saxa received new radars, the AMES Type 14 medium-range search radar, and associated AMES Type 13 height finders. While these were being built, a dramatically more powerful system was entering prototype use, the AMES Type 80. The Type 80 had an effective range over , covering the entire Shetland Islands and a significant portion of the Norwegian Sea. The coverage was so vast that there was much less need to tie together multiple stations to provide a wide-area view, and the ROTOR system began to be progressively downgraded to individual Master Radar Stations. Installation of Saxa's Type 80 began in 1955, but was blown off its mountings by winds gusting to in January 1956. A new antenna design capable of handling winds of this magnitude was designed as the Mark II, and replaced the original later that year. No. 91 Signals Unit officially formed up