Manassas Air Force Station

 (1952-1965) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1952 as Quantico Air Force Station near Manassas, Prince William County, Virginia. Renamed Manassas Air Force Station in July 1957 after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-55, later a Sage ID of Z-55. Abandoned in 1965.

History
Established in 1952 and became operational in March 1952 as Quantico Air Force Station manned by the 647th AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning mission. The early warning mission involved tracking and identifying all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission involved guiding Air Force interceptors to any identified enemy aircraft. Controllers at the station vectored fighter aircraft at the correct course and speed to intercept enemy aircraft using voice commands via ground-to-air radio. Renamed Manassas Air Force Station in July 1957

Initial equipment included the FPS-3 search radar and a CPS-4 height-finder radar.

SAGE System Operation
The site began operation as a SAGE System site in January 1959, initially feeding the Fort Lee SAGE Direction Center DC-04. Two FPS-6 (one A model and one B model) height-finder radars were installed in 1958 in preparation for SAGE System operation.

The FPS-3 search radar was replaced by an FPS-35 in 1961 but it did not become operational until 1962. The FPS-35 was tested to determine if it could detect missile launchings and it detected Polaris and Minuteman missile launches from Cape Canaveral on 28 Jun 1962. Additional testing indicated that the FPS-35 had marginal value for missile detection. In 1963 the FPS-6B height-finder was replaced with an FPS-26A height-finder.

Gap Fillers
Manassas AFS was responsible for the maintenance of three remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The Manassas AFS gap-filler radars were located at Hermanville, MD; Hanover, PA; and Thomas, WV.

Closure
Manassas AFS and the 647th were deactivated on 1 Mar 1965. The FPS-35 radar antenna sail was sent to Fortuna Air Force Station, ND to replaced their damaged sail.

Physical Plant


The physical plant of the site was divided into the main site, a cantonment area, a housing area and a radio site. The main site housed the operations buildings, the radar towers, and the backup generators. The cantonment area housed the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the dining hall, the motor pool and other support buildings. Apart from the main site was a small nine unit housing area for key married personnel. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Current Status
The main site is now the Administrative and logistics center for the Prince William County School District with many of the former Air Force buildings still standing and in active use. Gone are the FPS-6, FPS-3 and FPS-26 radar towers. The former BOQ building seems to have been incorporated into a much larger school building. The Radar Operations Building seems much larger than the normal operations buildings and may have been expanded in anticipation of BUIC operations that never materialized. The housing area has been leveled but is still fenced.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Fort Lee SAGE Direction Center DC-04

Sources:
 * , page 156.
 * , page 161.

Links:
 * Radomes - Manassas Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - Manassas Air Force Station
 * Radomes - Article