Brunswick Air Force Station

 (1951-1965) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station established during the Korean War. Located on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station near Brunswick in Cumberland County, Maine. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-13 and later a Sage ID of Z-13.

History
Established in January 1951 and became operational in October 1951 as Brunswick Air Force Station manned by the 654th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron. This site assumed coverage previously provided by a Lashup site at Grenier AFB, New Hampshire (L-4).

Initial equipment included a pair of CPS-6B search radars. A FPS-8 was added in 1955. The FPS-8 was later converted to an GPS-3 that served at Brunswick until it closed in 1965. In 1958 the CPS-6Bs were retired and two FPS-6 height-finder radars were added. This configuration (a SAGE qualified long-range search radar and two SAGE qualified height-finders) met the requirements for transition to SAGE System operation.

SAGE System Operation


The site began operation as a SAGE site in 1959, initially feeding the Topsham SAGE Direction Center DC-05. On 1 Oct 1959, the squadron designation was changed from the 654th AC&W Squadron to 654th Radar Squadron (SAGE) indicating the new SAGE System role.

On 1 Aug 1962 control was transferred to Boston Air Defense Sector, Stewart SAGE Direction Center DC-02, where it remained until the site closed.

Newspaper accounts indicate that Brunswick Air Force Station was slated to receive one of the Frequency Diversity (FD) FPS-35 radar sets which would have required the construction of a five-story tower. The tower was never built and the radar was not installed.

Closure
The Brunswick AFS radars were removed from service on 1 Mar 1965. The station and the 654th were deactivated on 25 Jun 1965. The R-25 GATR Site stayed in operation until about 1970.

Gap Fillers
Brunswick AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap-filler radar site. The Brunswick AFS gap-filler radar was located at Sedgwick, Maine. One additional gap-filler site was planned for Moultonboro, New Hampshire but the location was not confirmed and the site was never built.

Current Status
With the closure of the Air Force Station, the U.S. Navy reacquired the property that included the operations area and the small cantonment area. In 1984-1958 the U.S. Navy constructed a $10-million, 52,513 square foot one-story facility to house the headquarters for the Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing FIVE, on what had been the operations area of the Brunswick Air Force Station. This facility also housed a classified wing, which included the Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Center (ASWOC) that kept tabs on the Soviet submarines deployed in the Atlantic and northern seas.

Naval Air Station Brunswick officially closed on 31 may 2011. The property is being redeveloped for civilian use as Brunswick Landing. This includes a Southern Maine Community College campus located what had been the old Air Force Station cantonment area.

The only visible remaining feature of the old operations area is the easternmost radar tower, the $10 million Navy facility built on the operations site is now the privately owned FirstLight Data Center.

The Brunswick Naval Museum & Memorial Gardens at 179 Admiral Fitch Ave on the old base has photographs and limited information about the Air Force Station.

See Also: Sources:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Topsham SAGE Direction Center DC-05
 * Stewart SAGE Direction Center DC-02
 * , page 156-157.
 * , page 119.

Links:
 * Radomes - Brunswick Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - Brunswick Air Force Station