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English: The 98 ft tower of Orfordness lighthouse was completed in 1792 and the light had a range of 20 nautical miles.The lighthouse was decommissioned on 27 June 2013, because of the encroaching sea. Trinity House has increased the power of the light at Southwold Lighthouse to compensate for its closure. It is not now accessible due to a structurally dangerous adjacent building. It will eventually be swallowed by the sea. Orford Ness was, for most of the twentieth century, a military research station so secret that nobody knew what went on there, and so remote that even now most people have never heard of it. Yet the contribution of its scientists, service and civilian, to the winning of the First World War, the Second World War and the Cold War places them on a par with the codebreakers of Bletchley Park. At this highly atmospheric and often inhospitable location on the Suffolk coast, the Royal Flying Corps (later RAF) conducted crucial experiments and trials, some brilliant, others futile, on effective gunnery, accurate bombing and improved navigational aids.They also conducted trials here in aerial photography It was the venue for Watson Watt’s early work on radar and for Barnes Wallis’ improved Tallboy bomb. From 1953, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment used it as the testing range for British nuclear bombs. In 1967 the world’s most powerful radar station, COBRA MIST, was constructed for the US Department of Defense. Why it was closed down is just one of many Orford Ness mysteries.