England Air Force Base Radar Site

England Air Force Base Radar Site (1955-1963) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station established just after the Korean War. Located near Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of M-125. Closed in 1963. History Constructed in 1955. By August 1955 all the towers had been constructed and were awaiting installation of electronic equipment. The site became operational in December 1955 as England Air Force Base Radar Site manned by the 653rd Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron. Initial equipment included the TPS-1D search radar, MPS-14 and TPS-10D height-finder radars. Manual System Operation In the fall of 1954, the 653rd AC&W Squadron moved to England Air Force Base Radar Site, assigned to the 33rd Air Division (Defense) (33rd ADD). Headquartered at Oklahoma City Air Force Station. The 33rd ADD provided command and control over subordinate radar stations from the Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 located on Oklahoma City Air Force Station. Closure Orders to close down the radar site and the gap filler radars were received on 26 April 1963. The England AFB Radar Site and the 653rd AC&W Squadron were deactivated as/of 23 Apr 1963. Operations ceased on 1 May 1963 but a small compound and the FPS-20 search radar was turned over to the FAA and the site later resumed operation as the Alexandria FAA Radar Site. Alexandria FAA Radar Site Alexandria FAA Radar Site Radome in 2020. On 1 Jul 1964, the FAA took over the USAF FPS-20A search radar and tower on the former USAF radar site along with a small compound surrounding the tower. On 6 Jun 1965, they had completed the changes necessary to connect the radar to the FAA ARTCC system and they began 24-hour operation with the legacy FPS-20 radar. A FYQ-47 Common Digitizer was probably placed in service by February 1973 when the USAF/FAA FST-2 to FYQ-47 replacement program was completed. By 1990 the site was equipped with an FPS-20A search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The Alexandria CD-2A was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing in July 1992. CARSR Radar The nationwide replacement program converting FAA legacy radar systems to the CARSR radar configuration was completed by 17 Aug 2015 and Alexandria FAA Radar Site was a part of that program. Legacy FAA radars underwent a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) that replaced key components in the vintage ARSR-1, ARSR-2, FPS-20, FPS-66 and FPS-67 radars. The CARSR program replaced legacy klystron radar transmitters with a solid-state transmitter as well as renovating the radar receiver and signal processor. The CARSR modification also included common digitizer functionality making a separate common digitizer unnecessary. The Alexandria FAA Radar Site is now operating with the CARSR radar. On 4 May 2012, the upgrade to a Common Air-Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR) configuration was complete. At the time of conversion, the search radar set was reported as an FPS-20A with a 1561 Antenna. The radar site data is now available to the USAF/NORAD Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) operations centers (EADS & WADS) as well as the FAA Houston ARTCC (ZHU) and adjacent ARTCCs. Other federal agencies have access to the data under the Homeland Security umbrella. Gap Fillers The England AFB radar site was responsible for the maintenance of three remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The unattended gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites were equipped with short range FPS-14 or FPS-18 search radars and FST-1 Coordinate Data transmitters that sent digitized radar target data to a SAGE direction center and to the main radar site. Both the radar set and the FST-1 were dual channel to increase site up time. Maintenance teams were dispatched for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators on the FSW-1 remote monitoring equipment suggested the site had problems. The FSW-1 also allowed remote operation of specific functions such as channel changes for the radar and for the FST-1, it also allowed remote operation of the diesel generators at the gap filler site. The England AFB radar site gap-filler radars were located at Delhi, LA, Lake Charles GFA, LA and Weeks Island, LA. One additional gap-filler was planned at Heflin, LA but was never built. England AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites (edit list) ADC NORAD Location State Type From To GPS Notes M-125A Delhi LA FPS-18, FST-1 1960-06 1960-12 32.32778, -91.55694 Not visible M-125C Weeks Island LA FPS-14, FST-1 1960-02 1963-06 29.80954, Building exists Tower pads only M-125D Lake Charles LA FPS-18, FST-1 1961-12 1963-06 30.18455, -93.17317 Over built with private home England AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems IFF/SIF/Beacon TPS-1D FPS-20 FPS-20A FAA CARSR FAA FPS-14 GF FPS-18 GF MPS-14 TPS-10D FST-1 GF FYQ-47 FAA CD-2A FAA ATCBI-6 FAA Unit Designations 653rd Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1953-1963) 653rd Assignments 1 Jan 1951 - Assigned at Stewart AFB, NY, as the 540th AC&W Group 6 Feb 1952 - Inactivated 18 Jun 1953 - Reactivated at Tinker AFB, OK and assigned to the 33rd Air Division Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 fall of 1954 - Moved to Alexandria AFB, LA 1955 - Base of assignment redesignated England AFB, LA 1 Jan 1960 - Transferred to Oklahoma City, ADS Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 1 Sep 1961 - Transferred to 4752nd Air Defense Wing Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 25 Jun 1963 - Transferred to Oklahoma City ADS Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 1 Aug 1963 - Discontinued. England Air Force Base Radar Site Partial Commanders List (edit list) Assumed Relieved Rank Name Cullum Notes 1955-09 Major Collins, William J. N/A 1955-09 Major Towne, Ralph W. N/A 1959-08 1960-02-26 Major Roth, Wilhelm N/A 1960-02-26 Lt Colonel Ariano, Richard A. N/A 1961-05-01 Lt Colonel Tidwell, Samuel A. N/A Current Status Active FAA radar site. {"selectable":false,"height":"-500","width":"-500"} Location: Former England Air Force Base near Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Maps & Images Lat: 31.31442 Long: -92.53069 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 85' GPS Locations: 31.31442, -92.53069 England AFB Radar Site 31.31429, -92.53056 Alexandria FAA Radar Site See Also: Houston ARTCC SAGE System US Radar Sets Permanent System Radar Sites Permanent Radar System Direction Centers Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 Sources: Cornett, Lloyd H. & Johnson, Mildred W., A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization (1946-1980), Office of History ADC, Peterson AFB, Colorado, 31 Dec 1980, 179 pages, Pdf, page 98. Winkler, David F., Searching the Skies: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, USAF Hq Air Combat Command, 1997, 192 pages, Pdf, page 118. FAA - Site Listing of Legacy Radars as of 23 Dec 2016. U.S. DoT - Recommendation on Transition from Primary/Secondary Radar to Secondary-Only Radar Capability 1994. FAA - Three Level Weather For ARTCC Displays - Project Implementation Plan, FAA Order 7110.14A, 14 Feb 1990. FAA - SSR/DMTI Modification - Project Implementation Plan, FAA Order 6340.20, 6 Jul 1988. Links: Wikipedia - England Air Force Base Visited: 30 Oct 2020