Bedford Air Force Station is a closed

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

General Surveillance Radar station. It is located north of

Bedford, Virginia Bedford is an incorporated town and former independent city located within Bedford County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It serves as the county seat of Bedford County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,657. It is part of the Lynchbur ...

. It was closed in 1975.

History

Bedford AFS was established by Air Defense Command in 1954 as part of a planned deployment of forty-four Phase I Mobile Radar stations. It was one of twenty-nine stations which were sited around the perimeter of the country to support the permanent ADC network of seventy-five stations. The deployment had been projected to be operational by mid-1952. Funding, constant site changes, construction, and equipment delivery delayed deployment The 649th Airborne Control and Warning Squadron achieved beneficial occupancy by 1 December 1954. Operational status was achieved in 1956 with the activation of the AN/MPS-8 and AN/MPS-11 radars, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. By 1958 the AN/MPS-8 had been superseded by a pair of

AN/FPS-6 The AN/FPS-6 Radar was a long-range height finding radar used by the United States Air Force's Air Defense Command. The AN/FPS-6 radar was introduced into service in the late 1950s and served as the principal height-finder radar for the United Stat ...

height-finder radars. In 1959 an

AN/FPS-20 The AN/FPS-20 was a widely used L band early warning and ground-controlled interception radar system employed by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command, the NORAD Pinetree Line in Canada, the USAF CONAD in the continental United States, a ...

A search radar replaced the AN/MPS-11 set. During 1959 Bedford AFB joined the

Semi Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. SA ...

(SAGE) system, initially feeding data to DC-04 at

Fort Lee AFS Fort Lee Air Force Station is a former United States Air Force station. It is located northwest of Prince George, Virginia. It was closed in 1983 due to budget cuts. History Fort Lee Air Force Station, located on the United States Army For ...

, Virginia. After joining, the squadron was re-designated as the 649th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 October 1959. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. In 1960 this site also began performing air traffic control duties for the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

. In 1963 the search radar was upgraded and redesignated as an

AN/FPS-67 The AN/FPS-20 was a widely used L band early warning and ground-controlled interception radar system employed by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command, the NORAD Pinetree Line in Canada, the USAF CONAD in the continental United States, ...

. On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-121. Over the years, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. The 649th was inactivated and the Air Force closed the facility on 30 June 1975. Afterward the FAA took over the facility, and today it is an active Joint Surveillance System (JSS) site, now operating an

ARSR-3 The Air Route Surveillance Radar is used by the United States Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration to control airspace within and around the borders of the United States. The ARSR-4 is the FAA's most recent (late 1980s, early 1990s) ...

Long Range Air Route Surveillance Radar. Most of the buildings on the site have been torn down, the housing and GATR site have been obliterated as well.

Air Force units and assignments

Units: * 649th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, Assigned 1 December 1954 : Activated as 649th Aircraft Control Squadron at Orlando AFB, Florida on 20 November 1948 : Moved to Roslyn, New York ''ca''. 1 April 1949 : Inactivated 1 October 1949 : Redesignated 649th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron : Activated at Roslyn (later Roslyn AFS), NY, on 26 May 1953 (not manned or equipped) : Redesignated 649th Radar Squadron (SAGE), on 1 October 1959 : Redesignated 649th Radar Squadron, on 1 February 1974 : Inactivated on 30 June 1975 Assignments: * 539th Aircraft Control & Warning Group, 20 November 1948 * 503rd Aircraft Control & Warning Group, ''ca''. 1 Apr 1949 - 1 October 1949 * 26th Air Division, 26 May 1953 *

4710th Defense Wing The 4710th Air Defense Wing is a discontinued unit of the United States Air Force. It was last stationed at O'Hare International Airport, Illinois, where it was assigned to the 37th Air Division of Air Defense Command (ADC), and where it was dis ...

, 1 May 1954 *

85th Air Division The 85th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Eastern Air Defense Force of Air Defense Command at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. It was inactivated on 1 September 1958. History During World W ...

, 1 March 1956 *

Washington Air Defense Sector The Washington Air Defense Sector (WaADS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the Air Defense Command (ADC) 26th Air Division, being stationed at Fort Lee Air Force Station (AFS), Virginia. It w ...

, 1 September 1958 *

33d Air Division The 33rd Air Division (33d AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command, assigned to First Air Force, being stationed at Fort Lee Air Force Station, Virginia. It was inactivated on ...

, 1 April 1966 *

20th Air Division The 20th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Tactical Air Command at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida where it was inactivated on 1 March 1983. During most of the division's history it ...

, 19 November 1969 – 30 June 1975

References

* Cornett, Lloyd H. and Johnson, Mildred W.,
A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980
', Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson AFB, CO (1980). * Winkler, David F. & Webster, Julie L.,
Searching the Skies
', The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, IL (1997).
Information for Bedford AFS, VA
{{Aerospace Defense Command, state=collapsed Installations of the United States Air Force in Virginia Semi-Automatic Ground Environment sites Aerospace Defense Command military installations 1954 establishments in Virginia 1975 disestablishments in Virginia Military installations established in 1954 Military installations closed in 1975

History

Air Force units and assignments

See also

References