Ground Air Transmit Receive (GATR) control sites were the radio stations of a

Burroughs 416L The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of mainframe computer, large computers and associated computer network, networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image ...

SAGE Defense System of the

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 ...

. They were deployed to automate

ground-controlled interception Ground-controlled interception (GCI) is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was ...

using manned interceptors. Generally located near or, in some cases, on an Aerospace Defense Command radar station, a GATR site was used for the Ground to Air Data Link Subsystem to communicate command guidance via HF/ VHF/ UHF voice and TDDL to vector

F-106 Delta Dart The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft of the United States Air Force from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor", it proved to be the last specialist interceptor ...

and other suitably equipped aircraft (image of entrance sign with arrow: "Bangor North American Air Defense Sector") that had been dispatched by teams in Weapons Direction rooms of SAGE Direction Centers. Maintenance was done by the 304x4 Ground Radio Maintenance career field, with initial technical training at Keesler Air Force Base. The sites included the RCA AN/GKA-5 Time Division Data Link ( TDDL) equipment, that fed a two-channel AN/FRT-49 Electronic Guidance Signals Transmitting Set, employing Varian

klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequen ...

s to deliver 20 kilowatts output power (early sites used the 100 watt, single-channel AN/GRT-3 instead. The aircraft receivers were either Hughes AN/ARR-60 or

SLI AN/ARR-61 Airborne Radio Receiver SLI may refer to: Science and technology * Scalable Link Interface, for connecting multiple video cards (Nvidia) * Scan-Line Interleave, for connecting multiple video cards (3dfx) * Safe Load Indicator in cranes * Service Level Indicator * Spac ...

s of the Hughes MA-1 Fire Control System. Most GATR/SAGE sites are now

Formerly Used Defense Sites Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS or FDS) are properties that were owned by, leased to, or otherwise possessed by the United States and under the jurisdiction of the United States Secretary of Defense. The term also refers to the U.S. military pr ...

(e.g., the site supported by Oakdale Air Force Station, Pennsylvania) that were closed by the

1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission The 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission preliminary list was released by the United States Department of Defense in 1995 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It recommended closing 32 major United States military bases. ...

Sites

The San Francisco Z-38 (Mill Valley) site differed from

Manual Air Defense Control Center The Permanent System ("P system") was a 1950s radar network ("P radar net") used for the CONUS "manual air defense system" and which had a USAF aircraft control and warning (AC&W) organization of personnel and military installations with radars ...

s that networked

Permanent System radar stations The Permanent System ("P system") was a 1950s radar network ("P radar net") used for the CONUS "manual air defense system" and which had a USAF aircraft control and warning (AC&W) organization of personnel and military installations with radars ...

, NORAD Control Centers had simpler C³ equipment (e.g., for the "austere SAGE area" in the Zone of the Interior) than the Direction Centers' AN/FSQ-7s such as the General Electric AN/GPA-37 Course Directing Group with AN/GPA-67 Time Division Data Link equipment through transmitters to the AN/ARR-39 "SAGE Datalink Receivers" used in the

F-86L Sabre Interceptor The North American F-86D/K/L Sabre (initially known as the YF-95 and widely known informally as the "Sabre Dog",) was an American transonic jet fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was an interceptor ...

, which was the SAGE variant—an F-86D Sabre Dog with equipment for day/night/all weather operations. For example, by 1965, "

Hamilton AFB Hamilton Field (Hamilton AFB) was a United States Air Force base, which was inactivated in 1973, decommissioned in 1974, and put into a caretaker status with the Air Force Reserves until 1976. It was transferred to the United States Army in 1983 ...

and

Richards-Gebaur AFB Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport is a former airport that operated alongside Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station (also Richards-Gebaur Air Force Station) until the base's closure in 1994, and until it was closed in 1999. Formerly, it was oper ...

…operated as Remote Combat Centers (Hamilton had remote input from Reno Sector and Richards-Gebaur from Sioux City Sector)".

References

{{Reflist Military radio systems of the United States Air defense Equipment of the United States Air Force Cold War-related lists