The dishes had been upright until the NATO Forward Scatter Site (NFSS) was decommissioned. Two had been facing Fylingdales ballistic missile early warning station in North Yorkshire, and two facing another relay station in Norfolk, the purpose of the system being to relay data from Fylingdales to NATO headquarters at Maastricht in The Netherlands. They were dismounted because the new owner believed they had scrap value, but he quickly came to realise they were worthless and probably contained asbestos.