Cudjoe Key Air Force Station (earlier Cudjoe Key Missile Tracking Annex, Eglin AFB Site "No D 8") is a

Formerly Used Defense Site 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 pro ...

of in

Monroe County, Florida Monroe County is a county in the state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 82,874. Its county seat is Key West. Monroe County includes the islands of the Florida Keys and comprises the Key West Micropolitan Statistical Area ...

, Northeast of

Perky, Florida Perky is a ghost town in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It is located in the lower Florida Keys on Lower Sugarloaf Key near mile marker 17 on US 1 (the Overseas Highway). A post office called Perky was established in 1929, and remained i ...

Background

In February 1959, the Monroe County Commission approved extension of a potable fresh water line to what was described as a, "...missile tracking site on

Cudjoe Key Cudjoe, Codjoe or Captain Cudjoe (c. 1660s – 1764),Michael Sivapragasam''After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842'' PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library ...

" being built by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

. Activated on 16 Jun 1959 by the Army, the original mission of the site was, "...to track missiles traveling over the Eglin Gulf Test Range." The Air Force assumed operations in 1960 with test activities of the

Air Force Systems Command The Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) is an inactive United States Air Force Major Command. It was established in April 1951, being split off from Air Materiel Command. The mission of AFSC was Research and Development for new weapons systems. Ove ...

(AFSC) at

Eglin AFB Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). Th ...

, Florida having claimancy responsibilities. The site also had a concurrent air defense mission as part of 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) with an initial radar station site code J-08 that was later changed to Z-399 in 1963. On 30 June 1967, Cudjoe Key AFS transferred from the claimancy of AFSC and

to the

USAF Security Service Initially established as the Air Force (USAF) Security Group in June, 1948, the USAF Security Service (USAFSS) was activated as a major command on Oct 20, 1948 (For redesignations, see Successor units.) The USAFSS was a secretive branch of the ...

Goodfellow AFB Goodfellow Air Force Base is a nonflying United States Air Force base located in San Angelo, Texas, United States. As part of Air Education and Training Command, Goodfellow's main mission is cryptologic and intelligence training for the Air Forc ...

, Texas after commencing a May 1967 classified mission under USAFSS auspices.

Aerospace 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 ina ...
/
Tactical Air Command Tactical Air Command (TAC) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force, established on 21 March 1946 and headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. It was inactivated on 1 J ...
/
Air Combat Command Air Combat Command (ACC) is one of nine Major Commands (MAJCOMs) in the United States Air Force, reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force (HAF) at the Pentagon. It is the primary provider of air combat forces for the Air Force, and i ...

On 30 September 1970, the installation transferred to the claimancy of the

Aerospace 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 ina ...

(ADC) with

Tyndall Air Force Base Tyndall Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located east of Panama City, Florida. The base was named in honor of World War I pilot 1st Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall. The base operating unit and host wing is the 325th Fighter Wing (32 ...

, Florida as the custodial base, and in 1973 the first

aerostat An aerostat (, via French) is a lifting gas, lighter-than-air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloon (aircraft), balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or Moored b ...

of the

Tethered Aerostat Radar System The Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) is an American low-level airborne ground surveillance system that uses aerostats ( moored balloons) as radar platforms. Similar systems include the EL/M-2083 and JLENS. System The aerostats are large ...

(TARS) was deployed at the site, later increasing to two aerostats. With the disestablishment of ADC, the base came under the claimancy of the

Tactical Air Command Tactical Air Command (TAC) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force, established on 21 March 1946 and headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. It was inactivated on 1 J ...

(TAC) in 1976. By 1977 the site had transferred under the

671st Radar Squadron The 671st Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 20th Air Division, Aerospace Defense Command, stationed at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida. It was last active in 1980. The unit was a Genera ...

until that squadron's inactivation in 1980. The station then became a detachment of the

20th Air Division The 20th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Tactical Air Command at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida where it was inactivated on 1 March 1983. During most of the division's history it ...

followed by the

23rd Air Division The 23rd 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 1 July 1987 at Tyndall Air Force Ba ...

. In 1981, a TARS aerostat at Cudjoe Key AFS broke free while being brought down prior to a storm. It was later shot down by an F-4D ''Phantom II'' aircraft from Homestead AFB. Another aerostat at Cudjoe Key AFS broke free again in 1989 and 1991. In July 1987, the

Southeast Air Defense Sector The Southeast Air Defense Sector (SEADS), was a unit of the US Air Force located at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida. It provided air defense and surveillance of the southeastern region of the US. SEADS closed in winter 2005, ...

(SEADS) was reestablished and the station was redesignated as Detachment 3, SEADS. With TAC's disestablishment in 1992, the installation came under the claimancy of the

Air Combat Command Air Combat Command (ACC) is one of nine Major Commands (MAJCOMs) in the United States Air Force, reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force (HAF) at the Pentagon. It is the primary provider of air combat forces for the Air Force, and i ...

(ACC). On 1 October 1995, the Southeast Air Defense Sector was reassigned to the

Florida Air National Guard The Florida Air National Guard (FL ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Florida. It is, along with the Florida Army National Guard (FL ARNG), an element of the Florida National Guard. It is also an element of the Air National Guard (ANG) ...

and SEADS was re-designated Southeast Air Defense Sector (ANG) and came under the Continental NORAD Region (CONR) Headquarters at Tyndall AFB. On 1 November 2005, SEADS ceased air defense operations and its duties were absorbed into the Northeast Air Defense Sector which was renamed

Eastern Air Defense Sector The Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) is a United States Air Force unit of Air Combat Command (ACC), permanently assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A joint, bi-national military organization, EADS is composed of US ...

. The former SEADS transformed into the 601st Air and Space Operations Center at Tyndall AFB and currently performs the duties as the Air Operations Center for

1st Air Force The First Air Force (Air Forces Northern; 1 AF-AFNORTH) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. Its primary mission is the air defense of the Conti ...

/ Air Forces Northern (1AF/AFNORTH), the USAF component command of

United States Northern Command United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is one of eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense. The command is tasked with providing military support for non-military authorities in the U.S., and protect ...

(USNORTHCOM). In 2007 a private

Cessna 182 The Cessna 182 Skylane is an American four-seat, single-engined light airplane built by Cessna of Wichita, Kansas. It has the option of adding two child seats in the baggage area. Introduced in 1956, the 182 has been produced in a ...

Q ''Skylane'' that had departed

Key West International Airport Key West International Airport is an international airport located in the City of Key West in Monroe County, Florida, United States, east of the main commercial center of Key West. Flights departing from EYW often have weight restrictions, b ...

collided with the TARS tethers, killing the pilot and 2 passengers.. The aircraft had violated a 15,000 foot, 3 nautical mile radius restricted area around the Cudjoe Key AFS TARS site.

Customs and Border Protection

In 2013, the TARS at Cudjoe Key was identified for shutdown/deflation due to budget cuts imposed by the

Budget Control Act of 2011 The Budget Control Act of 2011 () is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis. The law in ...

, otherwise known as

sequestration Sequestration or sequester may refer to: Law and government * Sequestration (law), the seizure of property for creditors or the state. See also Committee for Compounding with Delinquents * Jury sequestration, the isolation of a jury * Bankruptcy ...

. Petition signatures among citizens in the Lower Keys were gathered to keep the "Fat Albert" aerostats at the station . In 2014, responsibility for the TARS at Cudjoe Key was transferred from the U.S. Air Force to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cudjoe Key AFS became a DHS facility. As of October 2016, Cudjoe Key was one of eight TARS sites operated by CBP.https://www.gvrhc.org/Library/AerostatRadarSystem.pdf

References

{{coord, 24.699, -81.505, type:landmark_region:US-FL, display=title 2013 disestablishments in Florida Aerospace Defense Command military installations Stations of the United States Air Force Formerly Used Defense Sites in Florida Monroe County, Florida 1959 establishments in Florida Military installations closed in 2013