Fort Lawton Air Force Station

Fort Lawton Air Force Station (1961-1963) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1961 in Seattle, Washington. Relocated from McChord Air Force Base in 1961. Named Fort Lawton Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of RP-1 and later a Sage ID of Z-1. Abandoned in 1963. Fort Lawton Air Force Station Site with FAA Radar History of Fort Lawton Air Force Station File:Radar Site at Fort Lawton WA circa 1962.jpg Fort Lawton Air Force Station, circa 1962-63. The radome in the center with the uncovered steel structure is a search radar owned and maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration. The two radar systems on the outside of the photo, without radomes, are US Army FPS-6 height-finders. The two radars with radomes and white covered structure beneath (one near, the other in the back) are US Air Force FPS-6A height-finders. The radar with a white radome and dark covered structure beneath is a US Air Force FPS-26A height-finder, under construction in this photo. Established in 1960 as Fort Lawton Air Force Station manned by the 635th AC&W Squadron. The site was repositioned from it's location on McChord Air Force Base to Fort Lawton in June 1961 as a joint FAA/USAF operation. Initial equipment included the FAA ARSR-1C search radar and two USAF FPS-6A height finder radars and an FST-2 coordinate data transmission system. A U.S. Army NIKE Missile Master site was co-located with the USAF site and two U.S. Army FPS-6 height finder radars were placed to support that operation. An USAF FPS-26A height finder radar was installed just months before the site was closed. The site began operation as a SAGE site on 11 Jun 1961 initially feeding the McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 at McChord Air Force Base. Fort Lawton AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap filler radar sites. The gap filler sites were place 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 Fort Lawton AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The Fort Lawton AFS gap filler site was located at Chehalis but little is known about it's equipment or operation. Fort Lawton AFS was deactivated in March 1963. Fort Lawton AFS Major Equipment List Search Radar HF Radar Data Systems ARSR-1C FPS-6A FPS-26A FST-2/A/B Unit Designations 635th Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron (1960-1960) 635th Radar Squadron (SAGE) (1960-1963) Current Status Operating as an unattended FAA radar site data tied to the JSS system. {"selectable":false,"width":"500"} Location: Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington. Maps & Images Lat: 47.6575 Long: -122.41306 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: .....' See Also: McChord SAGE Direction Center DC-12 USAF Radar Sites Fort Lawton Sources: Winkler, David F., Searching the Skies: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, USAF Hq Air Combat Command, 1997, 192 pages, Pdf. Cornett, Lloyd H. & Johnson, Mildred W., A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization (1946-1980), Office of History ADC, Peterson AFB, Colorado, 31 Dec 1980, 179 pages, Pdf. Links: Radomes - Fort Lawton Air Force Station Wikipedia - Fort Lawton Air Force Station Visited: 20 May 2014