Type Air Force Station Year built 1956 | In use 1956-1964 Controlled by United States Air Force | |
Garrison 911th Aircraft Control and Warning (later Radar) Squadron People also search for Flintstone Air Force Station | ||
Lyndonville Air Force Station (ADC ID: M-103) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 14.6 miles (23.5 km) northeast of Lyndonville, Vermont. It was closed in 1963.
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History
Initially known as North Concord AFS, the station was part of the planned deployment of forty-four Mobile radar stations by Air Defense Command in 1952 to provide protection for Strategic Air Command Bases and to support the permanent deployment of the seventy-five stations of the ADC radar network around the perimeter of the country. This deployment had been projected to be operational by mid-1952. Funding, constant site changes, construction, and equipment delivery delayed deployment.
North Concord became operational on 1 March 1956 when the 911th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron activated AN/MPS-11 and AN/MPS-14 radars, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes.
In 1958 an AN/FPS-6A height-finder radar joined the site. In 1959 the 911th briefly operated an AN/FPS-3 radar. During 1959 North Concord AFS joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to DC-05 at Topsham AFS, Maine. After joining, the squadron was redesignated as the 911th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 October 1959. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. In August 1962 the station was switched to the SAGE Data Center DC-02 at Stewart AFB, New York.
On 1 March 1962 the station was renamed Lyndonville AFS, and later that year new radar towers were constructed to house an AN/FPS-27 search radar and an AN/FPS-26 height-finder radar. In early 1963 the AN/FPS-26 radar was installed. However, in March 1963 the Air Force ordered the site to close. The AN/FPS-27 installation was then cancelled. Operations ceased on 1 August 1963.
Today, the site sits abandoned with all of its towers still standing, and many buildings in various states of disrepair but still intact. The housing area is currently in use, in fact, the town of East Haven, Vermont (5.8 mi East), has grown up around it.
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