Crystal Springs 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 in

Crystal Springs, Mississippi Crystal Springs is a city in Copiah County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 5,044 as of the 2010 census, down from 5,873 in 2000. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography U.S. Route 51 runs through the ...

. It was closed in 1968. Crystal Springs Air Force Station came into existence as part of Phase III of the Air Defense Command Mobile Radar program. On October 20, 1953 ADC requested a third phase of twenty-five radar sites be constructed.

History

The

627th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron The 627th Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 32d Air Division, Air Defense Command (ADC), stationed at Crystal Springs Air Force Station, Mississippi. It was inactivated on 8 September 1968. ...

was assigned on 1 September 1958 and began testing the

AN/FPS-27 The AN/FPS-27 Radar was a Long Range search radar used by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command. Westinghouse built a Frequency Diverse (FD) search radar designed to operate in the S-band from 2322 to 2670 MHz. The radar was design ...

frequency-diversified search radar. During 1959 Crystal Springs AFS 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-09 at Gunter AFB, Alabama. After joining, the squadron was re-designated as the

627th Radar Squadron The 627th Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 32d Air Division, Air Defense Command (ADC), stationed at Crystal Springs Air Force Station, Mississippi. It was inactivated on 8 September 1968. ...

(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 addition to the main facility, Crystal Springs operated an

AN/FPS-14 The AN/FPS-14 was a medium-range search Radar used by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command. This medium-range search radar was designed and built by Bendix as a SAGE system gap-filler radar to provide low-altitude coverage. Operating i ...

Gap Filler site: * Summit, MS (TM-195A): Two height-finder radars, types

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 ...

A and

AN/FPS-90 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 ...

, were also installed in the early 1960s. The

was inactivated on 6 September 1968 and Crystal Springs AFS was closed due to a draw-down of ADC and budget constraints. The site has been turned into a Job Corps training center by the State of Mississippi. Most of the former USAF buildings remain along with base housing. The radar tower footprints are still visible in aerial photography.

References

* A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado * Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
Crystal Springs AFS, MS

External links

{{Aerospace Defense Command, state=collapsed Semi-Automatic Ground Environment sites Installations of the United States Air Force in Mississippi Aerospace Defense Command military installations 1958 establishments in Mississippi 1968 disestablishments in Mississippi Military installations established in 1958 Military installations closed in 1968

History

See also

References

External links