A MASSIVE top-secret RAF base dubbed the UK's 'Area 51' uses 30ft-tall spheres to keep tabs on the country's enemies.

RAF Menwith Hill, in picturesque Harrogate in North Yorkshire, is towered over by 30ft-tall spheres.

The 37 weather-proof globes – designed to shield and protect radar technology – are nicknamed “the golf balls” by staff on the site.

The base was built in the 1950s yet remains a mystery to many.

The "UK's Area 51" nickname nods to the United States' highly-classified testing and training range in Nevada whose intense secrecy has made it a favourite of conspiracy theory, alien and UFO enthusiasts.

The US Department of Defence operates at RAF Menwith Hill, made available by its Ministry of Defence owners under a 1951 NATO deal.

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And it is now believed to be the the world's largest electric monitoring station and one of America's biggest overseas surveillance bases, MailOnline reported.

Although secrecy still surrounds exactly what happens there, the site was set up as a “communication intercept and intelligence support service” for both Britain and the US, according to historic planning documents submitted to Harrogate Borough Council.

The British War Office bought 246 acres of land at Nessfield Farm in 1954.

Construction of the airbase began there two years later.

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But RAF Menwith Hill has attracted concerns and protests over the decades to follow, especially over the presence there of overseas military personnel.

The 1980s campaign group Otley Peace Action Group also held demonstrations arguing against the nature of the work potentially being carried out inside.

The Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases was set up the next decade, and later the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign.

The MHAC website warns of "a significant risk to the Yorkshire and wider UK population from the United States surveillance activity at Menwith Hill because it makes a significant military target".

Environmental activists from Greenpeace scaled an antenna at the base in July 2001 and mounted a protest against US plans for a so-called "Star Wars" missile defence system.

Leaked documents suggest the base helps to "eliminate" enemy targets in the Middle East, according to US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The government said in 2017 there were 1,205 people employed at the base – including 33 US and seven UK military staff, 250 American and 486 British civilians and 344 US and 85 UK contractors.

Among them are officials from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and America's National Security Agency (NSA).

There are also plans to expand with new buildings and roads, the Yorkshire Post reported.

Features of the site are said to include an operations building the size of a football pitch and an auditorium for meetings, as well as a school for employees' children.

It also reported provides workers with an on-site bar, bowling alley, pool, restaurant and shops.

Across the Atlantic, Area 51 – 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas – is a US Air Force base surrounded by alien conspiracies.

Strict security means no interior images have been made public – and the CIA never even acknowledged its existence until June 2013 following a 2005 Freedom of Information request.

The airbase is believed by many to be the home of the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems.

Some theorists believe the facility is used to store, examine and reverse-engineer crashed alien spacecraft, including material supposedly recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash.

It was revealed yesterday three suspected spies for Russia in Britain have been charged after people were arrested in a major national security investigation.

And new details about the alleged spy ring have emerged today, with neighbours claiming Russian agents showered them with gifts.

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A former British general has warned that the threat Russian spies pose to the UK is greater now than during the Cold War.

And ex-intelligence officers have told The Sun Russia has a network of sleeper agents in the UK who are hiding in suburbia and could kill on command.

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