Mount Lemmon Air Force Station

 (1956-1969) - A Cold War U.S. Air Force Radar Station first established in 1956 atop Mount Lemmon near Tucson, Pima County, Arizona. Named Mount Lemmon Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of M-92, later a Sage ID of Z-92. Abandoned as a U.S. Air Force Station in 1969.

History
Established on 1 Apr 1956 and became operational in August 1956 as Mount Lemmon Air Force Station manned by the 684th 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 MPS-7 search radar, an MPS-14 height-finder radar and for a while a TPS-10D radar set.

SAGE System Operation
The site began operation as a SAGE site on 1 May 1961 initially feeding the Luke SAGE Direction Center DC-21. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20 and an FPS-6 height-finder radar was installed. The search radar was later updated to an FPS-67B.

Gap Fillers
Mount Lemmon AFS was responsible for the maintenance of three 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 Mount Lemmon AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The Mount Lemmon AFS gap-filler radars were located at Sells, Benson and Globe, Arizona.

Physical Plant
The physical plant of the site was divided into the main site, a cantonment 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.

Housing for married personnel and some single personnel was provided at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base some 40 miles away. The road from Tucson to Mount Lemmon rose from 2,700' at Davis Monthan to 9,125' at the site. Transportation between Davis-Monthan and the radar site was initially by private and government vehicles but was later provided by contract buses.

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

Current Status
Repurposed as Steward Observatory, Mt. Lemmon Station, University of Arizona, Pima County, Arizona. Some of the original site buildings have been repurposed, some have been destroyed and at least one moved and reused at a lower level visitor center. One of the radar towers remains but with a smaller radar bubble attached.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
 * Luke SAGE Direction Center DC-21

Sources:
 * , page 160.
 * , page 99.

Links:
 * Radomes - Mount Lemmon Air Force Station
 * University of Arizona Sky Center
 * Wikipedia - Mount Lemmon Air Force Station