Fort Huachuca Aerostat Radar Site

 (1988-Active) - A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Aerostat Radar Site located on Fort Huachuca near Sierra Vista, Cochise County, Arizona. Assigned a TARS ID of B-41. Active Aerostat radar site.

U.S. Customs Service (1988-1992)
The site was operational in June 1988 at a reported cost of $22 million. The Fort Huachuca Aerostat Radar Site was one of three operated and maintained by Westinghouse Co. (TCOM) contractors to the U.S. Customs Service. Three other Texas sites were operated and maintained by contractor General Electric Company. The project was code-named SOWRBALL for Southwest Radar Balloon and it fed radar data to the U.S. Customs West Coast command center at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. Initial equipment included the TPS-63 search radar.

On Wednesday 10 May 1989 while the Fort Huachuca aerostat balloon was moored, a sharp gust of wind ripped and deflated the balloon. Some said it was a dust devil that caused the damage. The balloon was shipped to a Westinghouse facility in Elizabeth City, NC where it was repaired at a cost of $1.3 million. The repaired balloon was returned and reinflated on 12 Jul 1989 and returned to service the next week.

U.S. Air Force (USAF) (1992-2013)
A 30 Dec 1995 NORAD configuration document shows the Fort Huachuca TARS site as one of the six border TARS sites furnishing radar data to the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) direction center at McChord AFB in Washington State. It was shown with a TARS ID of B-41.

In 1999 Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to modernize six TARS site installations and by March 2002 they had transitioned three of the six sites to a standard 420K Aerostat balloon and the L-88 radar system. The first site to be transitioned was the Deming Site and the Fort Huachuca was second. The site was taken out of service on 18 Jul 2001 and expected back online on 10 Sep 2001.

In March 2002 Lockheed Martin announced they had been awarded a $70 million contract to supply USAF Aerostat sites with their updated L-88(V)3 radar. Lockheed Martin was to build, install, test, and support the L-88(V)3 radar system which included the airborne payload, the telemetry system, and radar control/monitoring console.

Current Status
Active Aerostat radar site operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

See Also:
 * TARS System
 * CBP Air and Marine Operations Center (AMOC)
 * Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS)
 * Western Air Defense Sector (WADS)
 * US Radar Sets

Sources:
 * NORAD Region Ground Environment System Configuration, NORAD, 30 Dec 1995, Chapter 2, Table 2.2.
 * Varb, Gene, Anti-drug "Fat Albert": Shadow stirs praise, ire, Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona), 14 May 1989, Page 1, 15.
 * Williams, Joel, Anti-smuggling fence completed, Del Rio News Herald (Del Rio, Texas), 15 Jun 1991, Page 1, 3.
 * Ibarra, Ignacio, Air Force seeks new drug blimp: Balloon has better radar, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), 4 Aug 1995, Page 15, 16.
 * Aerostat ready to return to skies, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), 14 Jul 1989, Page 1.
 * USAF ACC Fact Sheet - Tethered Aerostat Radar System January 2003
 * USAF Fact Sheet - Tethered Aerostat Radar System 29 Mar 2010
 * CBP Fact Sheet - Air and Marine Operations Tethered Aerostat Radar System
 * Aerostat ready to return to skies, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), 14 Jul 1989, Page 1.
 * USAF ACC Fact Sheet - Tethered Aerostat Radar System January 2003
 * USAF Fact Sheet - Tethered Aerostat Radar System 29 Mar 2010
 * CBP Fact Sheet - Air and Marine Operations Tethered Aerostat Radar System

Links:
 * Radomes - Fort Huachuca Aerostat Radar Site
 * Huachuca_Air_Force_Station Wikipedia - Fort Huachuca Aerostat Radar Site
 * Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles - Tethered Aerostats