Cut Bank Air Force Station

Cut Bank Air Force Station (1952-1965) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1952 near Cut Bank, Glacier County, Montana. Named Cut Bank Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-24 and later a Sage ID of Z-24. Abandoned in 1965. History of Cut Bank Air Force Station Established in 1 Dec 1953 as Cut Bank Air Force Station manned by the 681st AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning misssion. The early warnng 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 the FPS-3 search radar and an FPS-4 height finder radar. 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 FST-2 was installed at Cut Bank between October 1959 and February 1960. The site began operation as a SAGE site in 1960, initially feeding the direction center DC-20 at Malmstrom AFB. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20 and two FPS-6 height finder radars were installed. The search radar was later upgraded to an FPS-66 and the height finders were upgraded to one FPS-26 and one FPS-90. Cut Bank AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two 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 Cut Bank AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. Cut Bank AFS was responsible for the gap filler sites at Browning and Sweetgrass Montana. 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. Cut Bank AFS was removed from service on 1 Mar 1965 and the 681st was deactivated on 25 June 1965. Cut Bank AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems FPS-3 FPS-20 FPS-66 FPS-4 FPS-6 FPS-6A FPS-90 FPS-26A FST-2/A/B Unit Designations 681st Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1952-1961) 681st Radar Squadron (SAGE) (1961-1965) Cut Bank AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites (edit list) ADC NORAD Location State Type From To GPS Notes P-24A Z-24A Browning Montana FPS-14, FST-1 1957 1960 48.870556, -113.172778 Building exists P-24C Z-24C Sweetgrass Montana FPS-14, FST-1 1957 1960 48.980278, -111.961944 Building exists Current Status Abandoned near Cut Bank, Glacier County, Montana. Some buildings and one tower still standing. {"selectable":false,"width":"500"} Location: Near Cut Bank, Glacier County, Montana. Maps & Images Lat: 48.942222 Long: -112.805833 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 4,163' See Also: USAF Radar Sites 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 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 Links: Radomes - Cut Bank Air Force Station Wikipedia - Cut Bank Air Force Station Visited: No