North Bend Air Force Station

North Bend Air Force Station (1951-1980) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. Named North Bend Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-12 and later a Sage ID of Z-12. Abandoned in 1980 and turned over to the State of Oregon.

History of North Bend Air Force Station

Established in 1951 with the 761st AC&W Squadron assigned to the newly constructed radar station. Initial equipment included the FPS-8 search radar and an FPS-4 height finder radar. The radar equipment evolved into an FPS-7 search radar with two FPS-6 height finder radars while the site was still a manual Ground Control Intercept (GCI) site.

The physical plant of the site was divided into a main site, a housing area and a radio site. The main site housed the operations building, the radar towers, the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the chow hall, the motor pool and the backup generators. Apart from the main site was a small housing area for critical married personnel. A separate radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

The transition to the automated SAGE system began with instation of the FST-2 installation 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.

North Bend AFS was responsible for the maintenance of three remote unattended gap filler radar sites. The gap filler sites were place 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 North Bend AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems.

The site began operation as a SAGE site March 1960 initially feeding the direction center DC-13 at Adair AFS. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-7 and an FPS-26A height finder radar was installed.

North Bend AFS and the 761st Radar Squadron were deactivated on 11 Feb 1980 and the site was subsequently turned over to the State of Oregon.

North Bend AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems FPS-8/GPS-3 FPS-3 FPS-7 FPS-107 FPS-4 FPS-6 FPS-90 FPS-26A FST-2/A/B BUIC-II

Unit Designations 761st Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1951-1960) 761st Radar Squadron (RADRON) (1960-1980)

North Bend AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites (edit list)

ADC	NORAD	Location	State	Type	From	To	GPS	Notes
P-12A	Z-12A	Port Orford	Oregon	FPS-14, FST-1	1957	1967	42.73694, -124.50972
P-12B	Z-12B	Disston	Oregon	FPS-18, FST-1	1960	1965	43.58583, -122.6525	Fairview Mountain
P-12C	Z-12C	Placer	Oregon	FPS-18, FST-1	1960	1965	42.69190, -123.23038	King Mountain

Current Status

Currently operated by the State of Oregon as the Shutter Creek Correctional Institution (minimum-security prison) in North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. Some buildings remain no public access.

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Location: North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. Maps & Images Lat: 43.53333 Long: -124.17639 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: .....'

See Also:

• Adair SAGE Direction Center DC-13
• USAF Radar Sites

Links:

• Radomes - North Bend Air Force Station
• Wikipedia - North Bend Air Force Station

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