Clear Space Force Station - Wikipedia

Jump to content

Search

Search

Donate

Create account

Log in

Personal tools

Donate

Create account

Log in

Clear Space Force Station

3 languages

Deutsch<br>Français<br>Nederlands

Edit links

Coordinates: 64°17′26″N 149°11′13″W / 64.29056°N 149.18694°W / 64.29056; -149.18694

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

US Space Force station in Alaska

Not to be confused with the Shemya Island radar station at Eareckson Air Station, Alaska.

Clear Space Force StationNear Anderson, Alaska in the United StatesAn aerial image of Clear SFS in 1999.<br>Emblem of Space Base Delta 2<br>Site informationTypeUS Space Force stationOwnerDepartment of DefenseOperatorUnited States Space ForceControlled bySpace Base Delta 2ConditionOperationalRadar type<br>AN/FPS-123Location<br>Clear SFS

Location in the United States

Coordinates64°17′26″N 149°11′13″W / 64.29056°N 149.18694°W / 64.29056; -149.18694Site historyBuilt1949 (1949) (as Clear Air Force Auxiliary Field)In use1949 – presentGarrison informationOccupants13th Space Warning Squadron<br>213th Space Warning Squadron<br>Clear Space Force Station is a United States Space Force radar station for detecting incoming ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles[1] to NORAD's command center and to provide Space Surveillance data to the United States Space Force. Clear's AN/FPS-123 Upgraded Early Warning Radar is part of the Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) which also includes those at Beale AFB, Cape Cod Space Force Station, RAF Fylingdales and Thule Site J. The "historic property" was one of the Alaska World War II Army Airfields and later a Cold War BMEWS site providing NORAD data to Colorado's BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility (CC&DF).

In addition to the "original camp area" with buildings still in use today,[2] areas of the station include the airfield (ICAO: PACL ), the "SSPARS Site"[3] the technical site (Utilador,[4] BMEWS reflectors, support buildings, power plant), and the composite site (two permanent dormitories, a mess hall, recreation area, and administrative area).[citation needed] In addition to the Air National Guard unit, Clear has active duty USSF, Royal Canadian Air Force, civilian, and contractor personnel.

History<br>[edit]

PAVE PAWS and BMEWS coverage<br>The site was purchased by the Department of the Interior in 1949 for use as a gunnery range for Ladd Field.[2] The site became Clear Air Force Auxiliary Field.

In May 1958 total costs for the planned BMEWS Site I at Thule and BMEWS Site II at Clear were estimated at ~$800 million. In October 1958 they were both estimated to be completed in September 1960.[5] An additional 10-by-40-mile (16 km × 64 km) area[citation needed] was appropriated for the Clear site.

Clear is served by a spur of the Alaska Railroad, being about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south of Nenana and the Mears Memorial Bridge over the Tanana River that flows past Clear.[6] This has transported coal for the power station and heavy equipment.

Clear Missile Early Warning Station<br>[edit]

Clear Missile Early Warning Station construction began in August 1958 with 700 workers[7]—i.e., a "construction" camp was being erected in September 1958 by "Patti-McDonald and Morrison-Knudsen"[8] next to the railroad[citation needed] (for $1.7 million, 40,000 ft of railroad were moved by 1959.)[9] Groundbreaking for radar structures was May 1959[citation needed] ("Baker and Ford built a transmitter and computer building; a heat dissipation system; a radar transmitter building; wells and pumphouses; a fire station; and utilities")[9] and the AN/FPS-50 pedestals were complete by June 2, 1959.[10] In 1959[11] after the original White Alice Communications System contract, "the next segment of WACS... was series of TD-2 microwave installations to support... two routes [that] linked the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site (BMEWS) at Clear AFB... one going down the southeast coast (the A route) to the Ketchikan-Seattle submarine cable*, and the other, going east to the Canada–US border (B Route) through Canada, down to the lower 48 which was Clear's Rearward Communications System to Murphy Dome (A Route) and the Gold King Creek AFS (B Route) with data for the Ent AFB CC&DF.[12]

Three GE AN/FPS-50 Radar Sets were installed with antenna reflectors 165 by 400 feet (50 m × 122 m) that each weigh 1,000 short tons (910 t; 890 long tons). The "Building Two" middle transmitter building had the radar control room[verification needed] and room with the Sylvania AN/FSQ-28 Missile Impact Predictor Set.[13]

The "Clear Msl Early Warning Stn , Nenana, AK" was assigned to Hanscom Field, Massachusetts, on April 1, 1961,[14] and BMEWS Site II was completed July 1, 1961[7] (the date of IOC--Full operational capability was declared three months later.)[citation needed]

Clear transferred to Air Defense Command in November 1961.[citation needed] By mid-1962, BMEWS "quick fixes" for ECCM had been installed at Thule and Clear[15] and...