Cut Bank Air Force Station

Cut Bank Air Force Station (1951-1965) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established as Del Bonita Air Force Station in 1952 near Cut Bank, Glacier County, Montana. Renamed Cut Bank Air Force Station on 1 Dec 1955. 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.

In preparation for the transition to the SAGE System, the search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20 and two FPS-6 height finder radars were installed. The SAGE Annex to the operations building was completed and the FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitter was installed between October 1959 and February 1960

SAGE System Transition

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 site began operation as a SAGE site on 1 Jul 1960, initially feeding the Malmstrom SAGE Direction Center DC-20 at Malmstrom AFB. The search radar was later upgraded to an FPS-66 and the height finders were upgraded to one FPS-26 and one FPS-90.

Gap Filler Radars

Cut Bank AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two remote unattended gap filler radar sites. 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. Cut Bank AFS was responsible for the gap filler sites at Browning and Sweetgrass Montana.

**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

Physical Plant

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.

Closure

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 (1951-1961) 681st Radar Squadron (SAGE) (1961-1965)

681st Squadron Assignments
1 Mar 1951 - Activated at Del Bonita, MT, assigned to 545th AC&W Gp. 6 Feb 1952 - Transferred to 29th AD. 1 Dec 1955 - Site redesignated to Cutbank AFS, MT. 1 Jul 1960 - Transferred to Great Falls ADS. 1 Mar 1961 - Redesignated from AC&W Sq to 681st Radar Sq (SAGE). 25 Jun 1965 - Discontinued.

Current Status

Abandoned near Cut Bank, Glacier County, Montana. Some buildings and one tower still standing. The housing area is demolished.

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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:

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 130.
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, page 160.

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