Columbia Falls Air Force Station is a closed

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 ...

radar station in Washington County,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. Located northwest of

Machias, Maine Machias is a New England town, town in and the county seat of Washington County, Maine, Washington County in Down East Maine, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town population was 2,060. It is home to the Univ ...

and north of Columbia Falls, it went operational in 1990 but was closed in 1997 and placed in "warm storage" with minimal maintenance. It was deactivated and placed in "cold storage" in 2002.

History

Development of Columbia Falls AFS can be traced to work undertaken by USAF engineers in the early 1970s who were developing an Over-the-horizon radar (OTH-B) system. The system was based on a frequency modulation/continuous wave (FM/CW) radar capable of detecting and tracking objects at over-the-horizon ranges. In concept it involved bouncing radar signals off the

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

which allows radar to overcome the

curvature of the Earth Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. ...

. The first, most northernmost 60 degree sector of coverage was built as the OTH-B Experimental Radar System (ERS). At that time the operations were conducted at the receive site at Columbia Falls AFS. The system was bi-static, with the transmitter being located at Moscow Air Force Station. System and Initial Operational testing was conducted from June 1980 to June 1981. Successful testing resulted in the decision to develop operational OTH-B systems for the east and west coasts and in Alaska. The east coast OTH-B system was designed and built by

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and consisted of an AN/FPS-118 radar with the transmitter located at

Moscow AFS Moscow Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force radar station in Somerset County, Maine, Somerset County, Maine. Located northeast of Moscow, Maine, it went operational in 1990 but was closed in 1997 and placed in "warm storage" wit ...

and the receiver at the newly constructed Columbia Falls AFS. The transmitter and receiver stations were manned by personnel of the

776th Radar Squadron The 776th Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Northeast Air Defense Sector, Air Combat Command, stationed at Bangor Air National Guard Base, Maine, where it was inactivated on 6 September 199 ...

. Data processing took place at

Maine Air National Guard The Maine Air National Guard (ME ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Maine, United States of America. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Maine Army National Guard, an element of the Maine National Guard of the ...

Bangor Air National Guard Base Bangor Air National Guard Base is a United States Air National Guard base located on the grounds of Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine. Created in 1927 as the commercial Godfrey Field, the airfield was taken over by the U.S. Army ju ...

which was close to the geographic halfway point between the TX/RX facilities. The east coast OTH-B system was tested in the late 1980s and went operational when it was handed over to USAF in 1990. It was the largest of the three OTH-B systems and was so powerful that it could even detect changes in

ocean currents An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours ...

. Transmissions from the Moscow AFS site covered an arc from 16.5° to 76.5° and from to in range. The fall of the

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and end of the

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saw the OTH-B systems rendered obsolete for detecting intruding military aircraft, however, the east coast OTH-B continued operations until 1997 and its data saw use by the

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for tracking aircraft used by drug smugglers, as well as the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

which made use of the measurements of ocean currents and weather patterns. The facility was placed in "warm storage" in 1997 and in 2002 it was deactivated and placed in "cold storage" with equipment removed from the site.

References

External links

Information for Columbia Falls, ME
* *Additional HAER documentation, all filed under Over-the-Horizon Backscatter Radar Network, Columbia Falls Radar Site, at the end of Shadagee Ridge Road, Columbia Falls, Washington County, ME: ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** {{Navboxes , list = {{Washington County, Maine {{FmrMEMilitary Historic American Engineering Record in Maine Installations of the United States Air Force in Maine Radar stations of the United States Air Force Buildings and structures in Washington County, Maine 1997 disestablishments in Maine 1970s establishments in Maine Military installations established in the 1970s Military installations closed in 1997