Fort Lawton Air Force Station

Fort Lawton Air Force Station (1960-1963) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1960 in Seattle, Washington. Relocated from McChord Air Force Base in 1960. Named Fort Lawton Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of RP-1 and later a Sage ID of Z-1. Abandoned by the Air Force in 1963 and turned over to the FAA, now known as Fort Lawton FAA Radar Site. Fort Lawton Air Force Station Site with FAA Radar History Established in 1960 as Fort Lawton Air Force Station manned by the 635th AC&W Squadron. The site was repositioned from its location on McChord Air Force Base to Fort Lawton in June 1960 as a joint FAA/USAF operation. Initial equipment included the FAA ARSR-1C search radar and two USAF FPS-6A height-finder radars and an FST-2 coordinate data transmission system. A U.S. Army NIKE Missile Master site was co-located with the USAF site and two U.S. Army FPS-6 height-finder radars were placed to support that operation. A USAF FPS-26A height-finder radar was installed just months before the site was closed. SAGE System Operation McChord AFB Former SAGE Direction Center DC-12 and SAGE Combat Center CC-3 behind the F-4C Fighter Aircraft and FPS-26A Radar Antenna Static Displays. Fort Lawton Direction Centers & Sectors Assigned Direction Center Sector 1 Mar 1960 - Mar 1963 McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 Seattle Air Defense Sector The site began operation as a SAGE site on 11 Jun 1960 initially feeding the McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 at McChord Air Force Base. Fort Lawton Army Air Defense Command Post S-90DC The Army established Army Air Defense Command Post S-90DC at the station for Nike missile command-and-control functions in the Seattle area. The station was initially an FSG-1 Missile-Master Nike Radar Direction Center. It was later equipped with the GSG-5(V) BIRDIE solid-state computer system. Fort Lawton FAA Radar Site Gap Fillers Fort Lawton AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap-filler radar site. The gap-filler sites were placed 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 Fort Lawton AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The Fort Lawton AFS gap-filler site is located on Crego Hill near Chehalis in Lewis County, Washington but little is known about its equipment or operation. Fort Lawton AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites (edit list) ADC NORAD Location State Type From To GPS Notes RP-1C Z-1C Chehalis WA FPS-14, FST-1 1960 1963 46.554697, -123.058112 Building Exists Tower may still exist Closure Fort Lawton AFS was deactivated in March 1963. Fort Lawton AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems ARSR-1C FAA FPS-14 GF FPS-6A (2) USAF FPS-6A (2) USA FPS-26A USAF FST-2/A/B USAF FSG-1 NIKE GSG-5(V) NIKE Unit Designations 635th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1960-1960) 635th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (1960-1963) 635th Assignments 1 Jan 1951 - Assigned at McChord AFB, WA, to the 505th AC&W Gp 6 Feb 1952 - Transferred to the 25th AD Jan 1953 - Transferred to the 4704th Def Wg 8 Oct 1954 - Transferred to the 25th AD 1 Mar 1960 - Transferred to Seattle ADS McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 11 Jun 1960 - Redesignated from the AC&W Sq to 635th Radar Sq (SAGE) abt Jun 1961 - Moved to Ft. Lawton AI, WA Jan 1963 - Moved to Dauphin Island AFS, FL 1 Jan 1973 - Reactivated at Dauphin Island AFS, AL assigned to the 20th AD 1 Jul 1974- Inactivated Current Status Operating as an unattended FAA radar site data tied to the JSS system. {"selectable":false,"width":"500"} Location: Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington. Maps & Images Lat: 47.6575 Long: -122.41306 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: .....' See Also: Fort Lawton Permanent System Radar Sites US Radar Sets McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 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, 164. 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 42, 155. Links: Radomes - Fort Lawton Air Force Station Wikipedia - Fort Lawton Air Force Station Visited: 20 May 2014