FPS-35

FPS-35 long range fixed search radar Set - A long range Frequency-diversity search radar designed for select SAGE System radar sites. Twelve units built for the United States Air Force by Sperry Gyroscope. Former Montauk Air Force Station FPS-35 Tower and Antenna. FPS-35 search radar at Fortuna, North Dakota. FPS-35 Search Radar Tower at former Finley AFS, one of the two Steel Tower Versions. These radar sets were installed in and on five story towers that were each capped with a 70 to 80 ton rotating antenna. Two types of towers were used, the most common was a five story concrete tower that rose 84' 6" high with a 60' 3" square footprint. This configuration was used in ten of the installations with the other two installations using steel framed towers. The rotating antennas were very large and only one, Baker Air Force Station, Oregon was covered with a radome. The Baker Air Force Station FPS-35 radome was mounted on a separate Radome Support Structure (RSS) that surrounded the tower. The initial installations of the FPS-35 revealed problems that caused some of the sites to delay operational status until 1962. The Montauk AFS installation caused radio interference problems in the vicinity and that radar was taken out of service in 1961. The problems were resolved and the radar was operational in 1962. The antenna system provided another set of problems, one of the worst being the catastrophic failure of the antenna system at Fortuna Air Force Station in 1966 where the antenna folded down over the building. That failure was attributed to a shear pin failure. Current Status All of the radar sets have now been dismantled and removed from the buildings except for the one at the former Montauk Air Force Station (Now Camp Hero State Park) on the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. That structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and has the antenna still mounted, now rusted and non-rotating. The building may also contain some of the radar set equipment and cabinets but is currently not open to the public. FPS-35 search radar FPS-35 search radar Element Value Notes Nomenclature FPS-35 Manufacturer Sperry Gyroscope Company Type Search Radar Number Made 12 IEEE Band S Frequency 420 to 450 MHz PRF Pulse Width Rotation Speed Power Range 250 nmi ~ long range Altitude Introduced Dec 1960 FPS-35 Model at Peterson AFB Museum in Colorado. See Also: Finley Air Force Station Montauk Air Force Station US Radar Sets Sources: 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 39, 80. Links: Radomes - FPS-35 Wikipedia - FPS-35 Radomes - Fortuna AFS FPS-35 Antenna Collapse]