Opheim Air Force Station
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Opheim Air Force Station (1951-1979) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near Opheim, Valley County, Montana. Named Opheim Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-26 and later a Sage ID of Z-26 when it became a part of the SAGE System. Abandoned in 1979.
History of Opheim Air Force StationEstablished in 1951 as Opheim Air Force Station manned by the 779th Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) Squadron near the small town of Opheim, Montana. 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 for the manual GCI system included the FPS-3 long range search radar and an FPS-4 height finder radar. SAGE System TransitionThe 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. Radar system upgrades for Sage operation usually involved modifications to existing radar sets or new radar sets with the objective of improving high altitude detection and ECM. The original FPS-3 search radar at Opheim was replaced by an FPS-7C which was later upgraded to an FPS-107. The original FPS-4 height finder radar was replaced by an FPS-6 and an FPS-6B height finder which were later upgraded to one FPS-26A and one FPS-90. The site began operation as a SAGE site on 15 Jun 1961, initially feeding data to the FSQ-7 computer at the Minot SAGE Direction Center DC-19 at Minot AFB. With the deactivation of DC-19 in 1963, control was assumed by Malmstrom SAGE Direction Center DC-20 at Malmstrom AFB. In September 1972 the massive vacuum tube FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitter was replaced with the much smaller and more reliable solid state FYQ-47 Common Digitizer. Gap FillersOpheim AFS was responsible for the operation and 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 the direction center. Maintenance teams were dispatched from Opheim AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The two gap filler sites under Opheim responsibility were at Whitewater, MT and Whitetail, MT.
ClosureOpheim AFS was closed on 1 Jun 1979 and the 779th Radar Squadron was deactivated on 29 Sep 1979. Physical Plant The physical plant of the site was divided into a main site, a radio site and a housing area. The main site housed the operations building, the radar towers, the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the dining hall, the motor pool and the backup generators. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts under the SAGE System. Prior to the SAGE System there were separate Transmitter and Receiver sites physically located on the radar site. The original sites provided primarily voice communications for the local site while the SAGE GATR site provided both voice and data link communications for the Direction Center. Apart from the main site was a small 27 unit housing area and near the site entrance was a 16 lot trailer housing area for married personnel. Some married personnel were housed in the local community and at Glasgow Air Force Base, about 40 miles away.
Current StatusAbandoned, not much remains in Opheim, Valley County, Montana.
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Visited: 10 Aug 2016
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