Hutchinson Air Force Station

 (1952-1968) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1952 near Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas. Named Hutchinson Air Force Station after the location. Collocated with the now-closed Hutchinson Naval Air Station. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-47, later a Sage ID of Z-47. Abandoned in 1968. Now known as Hutchinson FAA Radar Site.

History
Established on 1 May 1951 as Hutchinson Air Force Station manned by the 793rd AC&W Squadron and became operational in May 1952. 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.

Initial equipment included two FPS-10 search/height-finder radars. In 1958 the FPS-3 search radar and a pair of FPS-6A height-finders were installed. The FPS-3 was upgraded to an FPS-20. In 1959 Hutchinson AFS was also performing air traffic control duties for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

SAGE System Operation
The site began operation as a SAGE site in January 1961 initially feeding the Sioux City SAGE Direction Center DC-22. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-66 and an FPS-26A height-finder radar was installed replacing one of the FPS-6As.

Closure
The 793rd Radar Squadron was deactivated on 8 Sep 1968 and the Air Force Station closed on 30 Sep 1968.

Hutchinson FAA Radar Site


The FAA acquired a small compound that included the search tower and a height-finder tower and continued to operate the site as Hutchinson FAA Radar Site. The FPS-66 was replaced with a Common Air Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR) circa 2015.

By 1990 the site was equipped with an FPS-66A search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The Hutchinson CD-2A was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing on 27 Apr 1990.

CARSR Radar
The secondary radar at this site is an ATCBI-6 Beacon set.

Gap Fillers
Hutchinson AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The gap-filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites sent digitized radar target data directly to a direction center. Maintenance teams were dispatched from Hutchinson AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The Hutchinson AFS gap-filler radars were located at Ellsworth and Wilsey, Kansas.

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 housing area for critical married personnel. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Current Status
The Cantonment area is now the Hutchinson Community College and Area Vocational School, The FAA still operates a radar at the main site. The housing area is now privately owned homes.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * BUIC System
 * JSS System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Sioux City SAGE Direction Center DC-22
 * Kansas City ARTCC

Sources:
 * , page 170.
 * , page 116.

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