Ashland Radar Station

Ashland Radar Station was a United States Air Force station located in Ashland, Maine operational from around 1980 to 1990.[1] Sitting on 6.59 acres (2.67 ha), it was built as a permanent replacement to the nearby Louis Blotner Radar Bomb Scoring Site.[2]

History

The station was constructed along route "IR-800", which was designated in 1981.[3] Detachment 7 moved southwest to the new Ashland Radar Station south of Ashland, Maine.[2][4][5] The Ashland Strategic Training Range[6] eventually included an AN/MPS-T1 and Multiple Threat Emitter System (MUTES) and in 1985, Det 7 was awarded the Combat Skyspot trophy.[7][6] It was closed in 1990 at the end of the Cold War.

The site Detachment 7 was a temporary radar site until August 1975. I was the first one to check in at this site. At that time we had two radars AN/MPS9 and an AN/ MSQ46 primary mission was Radar BomB Scoring and Electronic Warfare . Both B52's from Griffins AFB and Loring and FB111's from Plattsburgh AFB and Loring AFB were our primary customers. Later Equipment included an OA 215, MST-T1, MSQ 77, MPST1, MSR-T4 and a TPQ43. At the end of the Cold War 1994. Twice we received the Combat Skyspot Trophy. During my time there we had three FB-111s go down. They were all out of Plattsburgh AFB in NY. 4 out of te 6 crew members survived. Sadly two passed away as they were entering the IR800 just off the coast of Maine. Det 7 was a SAC unit under the sun command of the 1st Combat Evaluation Group, later under the Air Combat Command ACC/ 99ECRG.

References

  1. ↑ http://coldwarrelics.com/louis_blotner_bomb_scoring
  2. 1 2 Spruce, Christopher (September 5, 1975). "Ashland radar site aids Air Force training" (Google News Archive). Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2013-04-10. The Ashland radar site complex consists of a power production plant, a maintenance and supply area, a communications room, an operations area, administrative offices, and the radar scoring and ECM areas. Although the local RBS site is now permanent…We'll be having a full water supply and a sewer system. [Lt. Col. James H. Tiller, after being stationed at the Bismarck Bomb Plot, assumed] his first command at the Ashland site
  3. ↑ "FB-111A mission profile". Air Force Magazine. Air Force Association. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-10. (2011 transcription at FB-111A.net)
  4. ↑ "Off-Site Parcels [map]". Community Relations Plan - Loring Air Force Base (LORNG_AR_2069.pdf) (Report). AR File Number 2069 (Installation Restoration Program). Cambridge: WPI, Inc. May 1995. p. 37. Ashland Radar Bomb Scoring consists of 6.59 acre parcel in Ashland, southwest of Loring AFB. (map shows "Blotner Site" northeast of the "Det 7, 1st CEVG" site.)
  5. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DAU1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=JE8KAAAAIBAJ&pg=2912,5447875&dq=combat-evaluation&hl=en
  6. 1 2 "Ashland group awarded Combat Skyspot trophy". Bangor Daily News. March 22, 1985. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  7. ↑ "Tidbit for the Gulf War Vets and D.G.". Pictures of bombers on D.G. [Diego Garcia] for 91 Gulf War. B52StratoFortressAssociation.yuku.com. October 25, 2003. Retrieved 2013-04-10. Multiple Threat Emitter System [is] capable of simulating many radar threats at once. We use IFF to track the plane and transmit the radar signals and the EWs or ECM Pods on the fighters respond … it takes a C-5 to airlift

Coordinates: 46°36′15.23″N 68°24′51.44″W / 46.6042306°N 68.4142889°W / 46.6042306; -68.4142889

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