Cambria Air Force Station

 (1951-1980) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 near Cambria, San Luis Obispo County, California. Named Cambria Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Lashup-Permanent ID of LP-2 and then a Permanent ID of P-2, and later a Sage ID of Z-2. Abandoned in 1980.

History
Established in November 1951 with temporary World War II era equipment and became operational in January 1952 as Cambria Air Force Station manned by the 775th 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.

The temporary World War II era equipment included a TPS-1C search radar. The follow-on permanent equipment included the FPS-3 search radar and a CPS-4 height-finder radar. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-7 in 1961 and two FPS-6 height-finders were added in preparation for SAGE operation.

SAGE Operation
The site began operation as a SAGE site in April 1961 initially feeding the Norton SAGE Direction Center DC-17. In 1963 the FPS-6B height-finder radar was replaced by an FPS-26A.

When the Norton SAGE Direction Center DC-17 closed in 1966 control was shifted to Luke SAGE Direction Center DC-21 where it remained until Cambria AFS closed in 1980.

The FST-2 was replaced with a more up-to-date coordinate data transmitter, the FYQ-47 by 1977.

Gap Fillers
Cambria AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap-filler radar site. The Cambria AFS gap-filler radar was located at Lockwood, California.

Physical Plant
The physical plant of the site was divided into the main site, a cantonment area, a housing area, and two radio sites. 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. A small 21 unit housing area for married personnel was located in the town of Cambria.

A separate radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Closure
The inactivation of Cambria AFS was publically announced in April 1978 as a part of a larger plan to cut back on military spending. Cambria AFS and the 775th Radar Squadron were deactivated 30 Sep 1980. Air Force equipment was removed but the infrastructure remained including the radar towers. Both the site and the family housing area were put up for auction and the housing area was sold in January 1983 for $2,601,191.

Current Status
Abandoned by the Air Force. The base was sold on 13 Jan 2005 for two million dollars. The owner is Big Cats LLC, Bernd Schaefers.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Norton SAGE Direction Center DC-17
 * Luke SAGE Direction Center DC-21

Sources:
 * , page 167.
 * , page 101-102.

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