Blaine Air Force Station

Blaine Air Force Station (1951-1979) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near Blaine, Whatcom County, Washington. Named Blaine Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-46 and later a Sage ID of Z-46. Abandoned in 1979.

History of Blaine Air Force Station

Established in 1951 and became operational on 14 Mar 1951 as the radar site at Birch Bay manned by the 757th AC&W Squadron. The name was changed to Blaine Air Force Station in 1953. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning misssion. The early warning mission involved tracking and identifing all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission involved guiding Air Force interceptors to any identified enemy aircraft. Controllers at the station vectored fighter aircraft at the correct course and speed to intercept enemy aircraft using voice commands via ground-to-air radio.

Initial equipment included a pair of FPS-10 radars that were essentially stripped down CPS-6B radars with both search and height finder capabilities.

The transition of the manual GCI system to the automated SAGE system began with the installation of the FST-2 coordinate data transmitter and search radar upgrades. The FST-2 equipment digitized the radar returns and transmitted the digital returns to the SAGE direction center. Under the SAGE System, interceptor aircraft were directed to their targets by the direction center computers and controllers, greatly reducing the need for local controllers and equipment at every radar station.

The FST-2 was a very large digital system using vacuum tube technology. Over 6900 vacuum tubes were used in each FST-2 requiring 21 air-conditioned cabinets, 40 tons of air conditioning, 43.5 kva of prime power, and usually a large new addition to the operations building. The FST-2B modification added two more cabinets but with newer solid-state (transistor) technology to process coded responses from aircraft transponders.

The site began operation as a SAGE site on 1 Apr 1960 initially feeding the McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20 search radar and FPS-6 and FPS-6A height finder radars. The search radar was upgraded again in 1963 to an FPS-24 and the FPS-6 height finder was replaced by an FPS-26A.

Blaine AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap filler radar site. Gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites sent digitized radar target data directly to a direction center. Maintenance teams were dispatched from Blaine AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The Blaine AFS gap filler site was located on Mount Erie at Anacortes, Washington.

Blaine AFS became a BUIC I GCI site in 1962 and went operational as a BUIC II site in 1966. The BUIC II system provided a backup for a SAGE direction center and provided the ability to display sector wide radar data on consoles for local weapons controllers. The BUIC II system duplicated the functionality of the vacuum tube direction center computers with a GSA-51 computer and replaced the FST-2 with a more up-to-date coordinate data transmitter, the FYQ-47. Blaine was not selected as a BUIC III site and in 1969 the BUIC mission terminated and the site returned to a surveillance mission. As the threat from a soviet bomber fleet lessened the decision came to mothball the entire BUIC system in 1974. Blaine AFS and the 757th were deactivated in January 1979.

The physical plant of the site was divided into a main site and cantonment area, a housing area and a radio site. The main site and cantonment area housed the operations buildings, the radar towers, the backup generators, the five enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the dining hall, the motor pool and other support buildings. Apart from the main site was a small housing area for critical married personnel. A second housing area was added later. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Blaine AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems FPS-10 FPS-20 FPS-24 FPS-6 FPS-6A FPS-26A FST-2/A/B FYQ-47 GSA-51

Unit Designations 757th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1951-) 757th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (-) 757th Air Defense Group (-) 757th Radar Squadron (-1979)

757th Assignments

Blaine AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites (edit list)

ADC	NORAD	Location	State	Type	From	To	GPS	Notes
P-46A	Z-46A	Anacortes	WA	FPS-14?, FST-1			48.45387, -122.62599	May not have become fully operational

Current Status

Priviate property in Blaine, Whatcom County, Washington.

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USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Database Entry: 2086911

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Location: Blaine in Whatcom County, Washington. Maps & Images Lat: 48.91333 Long: -122.7341667 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 69'

See Also:

• BUIC System
• Permanent System Radar Sites
• US Radar Sets
• McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12

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 164
• 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 165
• NORAD/CONAD Historical Summary Jan-Dec 1966, dated 1 May 1967, Command History Division, HQ NORAD/CONAD, Unclassified (originally classified Secret), pdf, pages 28-31, Backup Intercept Control Systems

Links:

• Radomes - Blaine Air Force Station
• Wikipedia - Blaine Air Force Station
• Blain Air Force Station Site

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