Kamloops Air Station

Kamloops Air Station (1957-1988) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station first established in 1957 near Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Named Kamloops Air Force Station after the nearby town. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of SM-153 and later a Sage ID of C-153 and a JSS ID of R-32. The site was turned over to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) on On 1 April 1962 and operated first as RCAF Kamloops and then as CFS Kamloops. Abandoned in 1988.

History of Kamloops Air Force Station

Established in 1957 with the relocation of the 825 AC&W Squadron to the newly constructed Kamloops Air Force Station. Initial equipment included the FPS-3A search radar and an FPS-6B height finder radar. The radar equipment evolved into an FPS-87A search radar with a FPS-6B and a FPS-507 height finder radar.

The physical plant of the site was divided into a main site on top, a lower administrative area and a radio site. The upper site housed the operations building, the radar towers, a small chow hall and the backup generators. The lower site housed the headquarters, CE section, enlisted barracks, bachelor officer's quarters, orderly room, main chow hall, BX and motor pool. A small trailer park called McNair Park was established for married personnel and workers who had their own trailers. Other married personnel lived in Kamloops. A separate radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

The transition to the automated SAGE system began with completion of the SAGE Annex building on 18 Feb 1962 and the installation of the FST-2 starting 16 March 1962. 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.

On 1 April 1962, the RCAF accepted responsibility for the squadron with the 56 AC&W Squadron. Upon the re-designation of AC&W Squadron to a Radar Squadron the station became CFS Kamloops.

The site had began operation as a SAGE site on 15 Mar 1960 initially feeding the direction center DC-15 at Larson AFB with manual data. With the closure of DC-15 in 1963 Kamloops was connected to DC-31, the underground Canadian direction center at North Bay. In 1983 the station was connected to the Canada West ROCC

CFS Kamloops and the 56th RCAF were deactivated on 1 Apr 1988 and the station was closed on 1 Aug 1988.

Kamloops AFS Major Equipment List
Search Radar	HF Radar	Data Systems
FPS-3A FPS-20 FPS-87A	FPS-6B FPS-507	FST-2/A/B

Unit Designations
825th AC&W Squadron (1957-1962) 56th AC&W Squadron (1962-1967)

Current Status

The military facilities site been almost entirely leveled, some commercial cell and radio facilities operate from the site near Kamloops, British Columbia. The FPS-20 search radar antenna sail and feed horn was moved to a city park in Kamloops as a memorial.

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Location: Kamloops, British Columbia.

Maps & Images

Lat: 50.8022 Long: -120.12667

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Elevation: 3,0002'

See Also:

USAF Radar Sites

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