Winnemucca Air Force Station

 (1955-1968) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1955 near Winnemucca, Humboldt County, Nevada. Named Winnemucca Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of M-127 and later a Sage ID of Z-127. Abandoned in 1968.

History
Established in 1955 and became operational in 1956 as Winnemucca Air Force Station manned by the 658th 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.

Initial equipment included the FPS-3 search radar and two FPS-6B height-finder radars. The search radar was upgraded an FPS-20 in 1960 in preparation for the SAGE System transition.

SAGE System Operation


The site began operation as a SAGE site by 1 Mar 1961 initially feeding the Stead SAGE Direction Center DC-16. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-66 in 1961 and the height-finders were both upgraded to FPS-90s in 1963. With the impending closure of the Stead SAGE Direction Center DC-16 in 1966, Winnemucca was switched to the Adair SAGE Direction Center DC-13 on 1 Apr 1966. One of the FPS-90s was removed in 1967.

Closure
Winnemucca AFS and the 658th were deactivated on 18 Jun 1968.

Gap Fillers
Winnemucca AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The Winnemucca AFS gap-filler radars were located at Quinn River Crossing and Unionville, Nevada.

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. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts. 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. The majority of the cantonment buildings were of the quonset hut variety used in many of the mobile radar sites. Later buildings like the SAGE Annex were of concrete block.

Apart from the cantonment area was a small 18 unit housing area for married personnel. Both the cantonment area and the housing area were located at the base of Winnemucca Mountain on the outskirts of the town of Winnemucca.

The main site and the GATR site were located at the top of the mountain.



Current Status
The cantonment area and housing area are in private hands and have been repurposed. The main site and the GATR site are now commercial radio sites.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Hamilton Manual Direction Center P-48
 * Stead SAGE Direction Center DC-16
 * Adair SAGE Direction Center DC-13

Sources:
 * , page 157.
 * , page 134.

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