Las Vegas Air Force Station (ADC ID: SM-163, NORAD ID: Z-163) is a closed

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air 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 of the United States Army Si ...

General Surveillance Radar station. It is located west-northwest of

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

. It was closed by the Air Force in 1969 and turned over to the

Federal Aviation Administration 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 ...

(FAA). The site is now data-tied into the

Joint Surveillance System The Joint Surveillance System (JSS) is a joint United States Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It replaced the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system in 1983. Overvi ...

(JSS).

History

Las Vegas Air Force Station was initially part of Phase II of the

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly inac ...

Mobile Radar program. The Air Force approved this expansion of the Mobile Radar program on October 23, 1952. Radars in this network were designated "SM". The radar site is located on top o
Angel Peak
which is north-northwest of the city of Las Vegas, and east o
Charleston Peak
The Air Force constructed about 24 main buildings in two LVAFS areas, the Operations and

Cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a military quarters. In Bangladesh, India and other parts of South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British India, colonial-era). In military of the United States, United Stat ...

Areas. Construction in the Operations Area consisted of four radar towers, four operational buildings, one water pump station, a power building, and five large above-ground fuel tanks. The Cantonment Area contained approximately five dormitories, a dispensary, a mess hall, an administration building, an automotive shop, a maintenance shop, a storage building, a recreation building, one underground gasoline storage tank, and one large above-ground fuel oil tank. Each building had a smaller day tank for storage of heating oil. Three septic tanks comprised the sewage treatment system. The station became operational on 1 April 1956 when the 865th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned to the new station. The squadron initially used

AN/FPS-3 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 ...

search and AN/MPS-14 height-finder radars at this site, and 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. In 1958 an AN/FPS-20A replaced the AN/FPS-3 search radar. During 1961 Las Vegas 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-21 at

Luke AFB Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States., effective 20 December 2007 It is located west of the central business district of Glendale, and west of Phoenix. Luke AFB is a major trainin ...

, Arizona. After joining, the squadron was redesignated as the 865th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 15 October 1961. 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. It also became a joint-use facility with the

(FAA). On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-163. An AN/FPS-26A height-finder radar joined the site in 1963. In 1964 an AN/FPS-27 search radar set was installed, and in 1965 the AN/FPS-20A was retired from Air Force service. Reportedly, the FAA retained this radar set. In 1968 the AN/MPS-14 height-finder radar was removed. In addition to the main facility, Las Vegas operated several

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 sites: * Boulder City, Nevada (SM-163A): , now home to a

VOR/DME In radio navigation, a VOR/DME is a radio beacon that combines a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) with a distance-measuring equipment (DME). The VOR allows the receiver to measure its bearing to or from the beacon, while the DME provides the sla ...

* Lathrop Wells, Nevada (SM-163B): The 865th Radar Squadron (SAGE) was inactivated 31 December 1969. In 1970 the Air Force relinquished the property to the Department of Interior and transferred accountability for all improvements, with the exception of Buildings 18 and 40, to Clark County. Accountability for Building 18 was transferred to the Atomic Energy Commission (currently DOE) and accountability for Building 40 (Radar Tower FPS-20) was transferred to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). , all main buildings in the Operations Area are in use. The FAA operates the radar facility in Building 40. DOE maintains Building 18 and leases space to Nellis Air Force Base, and other government and private entities. Clark County leases all other buildings in the Operations Area to other government and private organizations. The former Cantonment Area is used by Clark County Juvenile Court Services, Spring Mountain Youth Camp (SMYC). Buildings 5, and 44 have been removed, but the foundations are currently used for various functions. The FAA had operated the AN/FPS-20A as part of the

(JSS) until the facility was replaced with a CARSR and ModeS. Both the SMYC and FAA facilities are restricted access.

Air Force units and assignments

Units

* Constituted as the 865th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron : Activated at

Norton Air Force Base Norton Air Force Base (1942–1994) was a United States Air Force facility east of downtown San Bernardino in San Bernardino County, California. Overview For the majority of its operational lifetime, Norton was a logistics depot and heavy-l ...

, California on 8 November 1955 : Moved to Las Vegas AFS on 25 June 1956Mueller, Robert, ''Air Force Bases'', Vol. I, p. 451 : Redesignated 865th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 15 October 1961 : Inactivated on 31 December 1969

Assignments

27th Air Division The 27th Air Division was a United States Air Force numbered air division and the geographic Air Defense Command region controlled by the 27th AD. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command (ADC)'s Tenth Air Force, at Luke Air Force Base, ...

, 1 April 1956 * Los Angeles Air Defense Sector, 1 October 1959 *

Phoenix Air Defense Sector The Phoenix Air Defense Sector (PhADS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the Air Defense Command 28th Air Division, being stationed at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. It was inactivated on 1 Apri ...

, 1 May 1961 * 27th Air Division, 1 April 1966 – 31 December 1969

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). * Mueller, Robert,
Air Force Bases
', Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982, Office of Air Force History, Washington DC (1989) . * 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 Las Vegas AFS, NV
{{Aerospace Defense Command, state=collapsed Installations of the United States Air Force in Nevada Radar stations of the United States Air Force Aerospace Defense Command military installations 1952 establishments in Nevada Military installations established in 1952 Military installations closed in 1970 1970 disestablishments in Nevada

History

Air Force units and assignments

Units

Assignments

See also

References