England Air Force Base Radar Site

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England Air Force Base Radar Site (1955-1963) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station established just after the Korean War. Located near Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of M-125. Closed in 1963.

History

Constructed in 1955. By August 1955 all the towers had been constructed and were awaiting installation of electronic equipment. The site became operational in December 1955 as England Air Force Base Radar Site manned by the 653rd Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron.

Initial equipment included the TPS-1D search radar, MPS-14 and TPS-10D height-finder radars.

Manual System Operation

In the fall of 1954, the 653rd AC&W Squadron moved to England Air Force Base Radar Site, assigned to the 33rd Air Division (Defense) (33rd ADD). Headquartered at Oklahoma City Air Force Station. The 33rd ADD provided command and control over subordinate radar stations from the Oklahoma City Manual Direction Center P-86 located on Oklahoma City Air Force Station.


Closure

Orders to close down the radar site and the gap filler radars were received on 26 April 1963. The England AFB Radar Site and the 653rd AC&W Squadron were deactivated as/of 23 Apr 1963. Operations ceased on 1 May 1963 but a small compound and the FPS-20 search radar was turned over to the FAA and the site later resumed operation as the Alexandria FAA Radar Site.

Alexandria FAA Radar Site

Alexandria FAA Radar Site Radome in 2020.

On 1 Jul 1964, the FAA took over the USAF FPS-20A search radar and tower on the former USAF radar site along with a small compound surrounding the tower. On 6 Jun 1965, they had completed the changes necessary to connect the radar to the FAA ARTCC system and they began 24-hour operation with the legacy FPS-20 radar.

A FYQ-47 Common Digitizer was probably placed in service by February 1973 when the USAF/FAA FST-2 to FYQ-47 replacement program was completed. By 1990 the site was equipped with an FPS-20A search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The Alexandria CD-2A was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing in July 1992.

CARSR Radar

The nationwide replacement program converting FAA legacy radar systems to the CARSR radar configuration was completed by 17 Aug 2015 and Alexandria FAA Radar Site was a part of that program. Legacy FAA radars underwent a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) that replaced key components in the vintage ARSR-1, ARSR-2, FPS-20, FPS-66 and FPS-67 radars. The CARSR program replaced legacy klystron radar transmitters with a solid-state transmitter as well as renovating the radar receiver and signal processor. The CARSR modification also included common digitizer functionality making a separate common digitizer unnecessary. The Alexandria FAA Radar Site is now operating with the CARSR radar. On 4 May 2012, the upgrade to a Common Air-Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR) configuration was complete. At the time of conversion, the search radar set was reported as an FPS-20A with a 1561 Antenna.

The radar site data is now available to the USAF/NORAD Battle Control System-Fixed (BCS-F) operations centers (EADS & WADS) as well as the FAA Houston ARTCC (ZHU) and adjacent ARTCCs. Other federal agencies have access to the data under the Homeland Security umbrella.

Gap Fillers

The England AFB radar site was responsible for the maintenance of three remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The unattended gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites were equipped with short range FPS-14 or FPS-18 search radars and FST-1 Coordinate Data transmitters that sent digitized radar target data to a SAGE direction center and to the main radar site. Both the radar set and the FST-1 were dual channel to increase site up time. Maintenance teams were dispatched for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators on the FSW-1 remote monitoring equipment suggested the site had problems. The FSW-1 also allowed remote operation of specific functions such as channel changes for the radar and for the FST-1, it also allowed remote operation of the diesel generators at the gap filler site. The England AFB radar site gap-filler radars were located at Delhi, LA, Lake Charles GFA, LA and Weeks Island, LA. One additional gap-filler was planned at Heflin, LA but was never built.

England AFS Gap Filler Radar Sites (edit list)
ADC NORAD Location State Type From To GPS Notes
M-125A Delhi LA FPS-18, FST-1 1960-06 1960-12 32.32778,
-91.55694
Not visible
M-125C Weeks Island LA FPS-14, FST-1 1960-02 1963-06 29.80954,
Building exists
Tower pads only
M-125D Lake Charles LA FPS-18, FST-1 1961-12 1963-06 30.18455,
-93.17317
Over built with private home




England AFS Major Equipment List
Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems IFF/SIF/Beacon
Unit Designations
  • 653rd Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1953-1963)
653rd Assignments


England Air Force Base Radar Site Partial Commanders List (edit list)
Assumed Relieved Rank Name Cullum Notes
1955-09 Major Collins, William J. N/A
1955-09 Major Towne, Ralph W. N/A
1959-08 1960-02-26 Major Roth, Wilhelm N/A
1960-02-26 Lt Colonel Ariano, Richard A. N/A
1961-05-01 Lt Colonel Tidwell, Samuel A. N/A

Current Status

Active FAA radar site.


Location: Former England Air Force Base
near Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

Maps & Images

Lat: 31.31442 Long: -92.53069




GPS Locations:

See Also:

Sources:

Links:

Visited: 30 Oct 2020


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