Canadian Forces Station Baldy Hughes (ADC ID: C-20) is a closed General Surveillance Radar station. It is located south-southwest of

Prince George, British Columbia Prince George is a city in British Columbia, Canada, situated at the confluence of the Fraser River, Fraser and Nechako River, Nechako rivers. The city itself has a population of 76,708; the metro census agglomeration has a population of 89,490 ...

. It was closed in 1988. It was operated as part of the

Pinetree Line The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North American Aerospace Defense Comm ...

network controlled by

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...

History

As a result of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and with the expansion of a North American continental air defence system, The site at Baldy Hughes was selected as a site for a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

(USAF) radar station, one of the many that would make up the Pinetree Line of Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) radar sites. Construction on the base began in 1952 and was completed in 1953. The base was manned by members of the USAF's

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for air defense of the continental United States. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air De ...

(ADC)

918th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron The 918th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Seattle Air Defense Sector, Air Defense Command, stationed at Baldy Hughes Air Station, British Columbia, Canada. It was inac ...

, being known as Baldy Hughes Air Station. In June 1953, operations began at the unit's permanent home. The station was equipped with

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 State ...

C, AN/FPS-502,

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; AN/TPS-502, and

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 S ...

B radars. As a GCI base, the 918th's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. These interceptors were based at the

25th Air Division The 25th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force intermediate echelon command and control organization. It was last assigned to First Air Force, Tactical Air Command (ADTAC). It was inactivated on 30 September 1990 at McChord Air ...

McChord Air Force Base McChord Field (formerly and still commonly known as McChord Air Force Base) is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord AFB is the home of the 62nd Airlift Wing, ...

in Washington. In the early 1960s, the USAF relinquished control of the base to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). This was part of an arrangement with the United States that came as a result of the cancellation of the

Avro Arrow The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a Delta wing, delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach number, Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding and was intended to serve as the Royal ...

. Canada would lease 66

F-101 Voodoo The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is a supersonic jet fighter designed and produced by the American McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. Development of the F-101 began in the late 1940s as a long-range bomber escort (then known as a penetration fighte ...

fighters and take over operation of 12 Pinetree radar bases. Upon hand-over on 1 March 1963, the operating unit Became No. 54 Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron and the base became RCAF Station Baldy Hughes. Radar operations at 54 Squadron were automated on 1 June 1966 by the

Semi Automatic Ground Environment 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) system, and the station became a long-range radar site. It would no longer guide interceptors but only look for enemy aircraft, feeding data to the

Seattle Air Defense Sector The Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) is a unit of the Washington Air National Guard located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, Washington. As a state militia unit, the Western Air Defense Sector is not in the normal United States Air Force com ...

SAGE DC-12 Direction Center of the

25th NORAD Region The 25th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force intermediate echelon command and control organization. It was last assigned to First Air Force, Tactical Air Command (ADTAC). It was inactivated on 30 September 1990 at McChord Air ...

McChord AFB McChord Field (formerly and still commonly known as McChord Air Force Base) is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord AFB is the home of the 62nd Airlift Wing, ...

, Washington. Radars at the station were also upgraded to the following equipment: * Search Radars:

C, AN/FPS-27 * Height Radars: AN/FPS-502,

AN/FPS-26 The Avco AN/FPS-26 Radar was an Air Defense Command height finder radar developed in the Frequency Diversity Program with a tunable 3-cavity power klystron for electronic counter-countermeasures (e.g. to counter jamming). Accepted by the Rome Ai ...

As a result of the

unification of the Canadian Forces The unification of the Canadian Armed Forces took place on 1 February 1968, when the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force were merged to form the Canadian Armed Forces. History A white paper was tabled in the Parliame ...

in 1968, the new

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

organization absorbed the RCAF, RCN and the Canadian Army. 48 Radar Squadron, RCAF Station Baldy Hughes, became simply Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Baldy Hughes in 1967. The station began reporting to the Canada West ROCC in 1983. It was closed in 1988. Today the former station is The Baldy Hughes Addiction Treatment Centre.

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 Baldy Hughes AS, BC
{{Aerospace Defense Command, state=collapsed Royal Canadian Air Force stations, Baldy Hughes Radar stations of the United States Air Force Installations of the United States Air Force in Canada Military installations closed in 1988 Military installations established in 1953 1953 establishments in British Columbia 1988 disestablishments in British Columbia

History

See also

References