Joelton Air Force Station
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Joelton Air Force Station (1957-1963) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1957 near Joelton, Davidson County, Tennessee. Named Joelton Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of SM-145. Abandoned by the Air Force in 1963. Now Joelton FAA Radar Site. History of Joelton Air Force StationEstablished in 1956 and became operational in 1957 as Joelton Air Force Station manned by the 799th AC&W Squadron. 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 the MPS-11 search radar and an TPS-10D height finder radar. Gap FillersJoelton AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap filler radar site. The unattended gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites were equipped with short range FPS-14 or FPS-18 search radars and FST-1 Coordinate Data transmitters that sent digitized radar target data to a SAGE direction center and to the main radar site. Both the radar set and the FST-1 were dual channel to increase site up time. Maintenance teams were dispatched for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators on the FSW-1 remote monitoring equipment suggested the site had problems. The FSW-1 also allowed remote operation of specific functions such as channel changes for the radar and for the FST-1, it also allowed remote operation of the diesel generators at the gap filler site. The Joelton AFS gap filler radar was located at Bradyville, Tennessee. Closure & DispositionJoelton AFS and the 799th were deactivated in 1961. The site was reported surplus on 5 Jun 1961, with 2.60 acres being transferred to the FAA in September 1961, 30.48 acres were conveyed to the State of Tennessee. Physical PlantThe physical plant of the site was divided into a main site, a cantonment area, a housing area and a radio site. The main site housed the operations buildings, the radar towers, and the backup generators. The cantonment area housed the 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 9 unit housing area for married personnel. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.
Current StatusFAA Radar is still active within the 2.6 acre compound transferred to the FAA. This now the Joelton FAA Radar Site, FAA Code QOJ, operating a ARSR-1E radar data-tied into the Joint Surveillance System (JSS). Possibly upgraded to the new CARSR radar.
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Visited: 13 May 2016
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