Clear Air Force Station Alaska is home for the 13th Space Warning Squadron (13 SWS). The squadron is assigned to the 21st Operations Group, 21st Space Wing, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
ORGANIZATION
The 13th Space Warning Squadron is the host unit and as such, exercises overall command of Clear Air Force Station. Air Force and Active Air Guard personnel are assigned to operations, security police, quality assurance, services, and commander's support staff.
MISSION
Provides critical missile warning and attack assessment data to NORAD, unified commands, CJCS, Secretary of Defense, and the President of the United States. Operates a phased-array warning radar system that continuously monitors the Pacific and polar approaches to North America, providing real-time warning of sea-launched and ICBM attacks. Detects and tracks earth orbiting objects in support of USSTRATCOM's space control mission.
The secondary mission of Clear AFS is to provide Space Surveillance data on orbiting objects to the Space Control Center (SCC) also at NORAD.
Clear accomplishes these missions using the Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS), which is housed in a triangular-shaped 11-story building on site. Clear's radar was originally located at El Dorado Air Station in Texas as part of the PAVE PAWS program and was recently transplanted to Alaska to replace the United States last mechanical missile warning radar site.
The radar system has two faces, which together forms a coverage area of 240 degrees wide and 3,000 miles deep into space. The coverage extends from the Arctic Ocean all the way to the West Coast of the lower 48 states.
Clear is Site II of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). Site I is located at Thule AB, Greenland and Site III is at RAF Fylingdales in Scotland, United Kingdom. Along with the PAVE PAWS radar sites at Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Beale AFB, California and the PARCS radar at Cavalier AFS, North Dakota, the BMEWS sites provide continual ground-based missile warning to defend the United States and Canada against intrusion by ICBMs and SLBMs.
These radars are also useful for tracking near-earth satellites because of their excellent tracking capabilities. The data they generate ensures the Space Control Center is able to accurately keep track of more than 8,000 objects in orbit. This allows them to keep manned objects, like the Space Shuttle and International Space Station out of harm's way and to closely monitor objects re-entering the atmosphere that might impact populated areas.
HISTORY
Clear Air Force Station has a rich history with very humble beginnings. The first permanent landmark was the Alaska Railroad whose tracks from Anchorage to Fairbanks were completed in 1915. Rumor has it that operations began in the Clear area when a small dirt landing strip was constructed alongside the railroad during World War II to aid pilots ferrying P-39 and P-63 fighter planes to Russia.
During the post-war period, Clear served as a gunnery range for the Army Air Corps and later as a divert field for Air Force aircraft operating in Alaska. The real estate was known as "Clear Air Force Auxiliary Field," a part of Ladd Field in Fairbanks, now the current site of Fort Wainwright.
The history of Clear as a radar site really began in 1957 with the Soviet launch of Sputnik. The US could no longer ignore the threat of Soviet ICBMs and the early detection of enemy launches became a national priority. In 1959, a 10 x 40 mile strip of wilderness at Clear was appropriated to become Site II of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). Site I was already under construction at Thule, Greenland and Site III would soon follow at Flyingdales Moor, Scotland.
A humble camp area was erected adjacent to the railroad and groundbreaking for the new radar took place in May 1959. Over the next two years, construction continued on the three massive detection radar's that have become Clear's trademark. The radars, designed by GE and MIT's Lincoln Labs and built by RCA measure 165 x 400 feet and weigh 2 million pounds apiece. Considering there were no major roads in the area at the time of construction, Clear was an enormous undertaking with a final price tag of $360 million.
In addition to the technical site (containing the radars, radar support buildings, and power plant), an administrative area (collectively known as the composite site), two permanent dormitories, a mess hall, and recreation area were also completed nearby.
Initial operational capability (IOC) was achieved on 1 July 1961 and full operational capability was declared three months later. In November 1961, the Air Force's Air Defense Command accepted the facilities from Air Force Systems Command who had been overseeing construction. The responsibility for operation lay with the 2nd Detachment of the 71st Missile Warning Wing. Although the site belonged to the Air Force, civilian contractor personnel actually performed the missile-warning mission until 1964, when Air Force personnel finally manned the Tactical Operations Room (TOR) permanently.
The Good Friday Earthquake, the second largest ever recorded, shook Alaska in 1964. Although no casualties were sustained, the quake caused the site to "go red" (unable to perform the mission) for six minutes.
Designed to detect incoming missiles, Clear's radars were also useful in tracking satellites in low-earth orbits. A mechanical tracking radar of an 84-foot diameter radar on a moving pedestal housed in a 140-foot diameter radome further improving this capability and providing enhanced accuracy of launch and impact predictions. In 1966 the tracker became operational.
On 1 January 1967, Det 2 became the 13th Missile Warning Squadron. One of the squadron's first acts was to provide emergency shelter to 216 refugees from Fairbanks and the surrounding area when a devastating flood struck the region in August of '67. Also in 1967, the squadron was given funding for additional building construction. Despite the new construction, many of the "temporary" buildings from the original camp area are still in use today.
Throughout the '60s and early '70s, Clear played a part in a series of experiments affecting its radars. One such experiment was conducted by the University of Alaska, which injected sulfur hexafluoride into the upper atmosphere to see if the aurora could be dissipated or intensified.
Clear achieved its first Outstanding Unit Award in 1970. Then the 13th MWS was reassigned from the 71st Missile Warning Wing to the 14th Aerospace Force in 1971. The assignment of its first female officer in 1973 and in the same year, the 13th MWS was awarded its second Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. The 13th was then reassigned from Air Defense Command to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) through 15th Air Force in 1979.
In 1981, Clear underwent a major modification when it was feared the radome housing the tracker radar was unsafe as a nearly identical radome had recently burnt to the ground at Thule. The modification project was the disassembly of the tracker, demolishing of the existing radome, construction of a new radome, and reconstruction of the tracker.
The 13th was again reassigned on 1 May 1983, this time to Space Command's 1st Space Wing. The first all-female crew pulled a shift on 28 February 1986 and was another first at Clear and received a lot of local publicity.
When Thule and Fylingdales were converted to phased-array radar systems, Clear became the last mechanical missile warning site in the US. It was then decided that Clear would be upgraded with a phased-array and the Clear Radar Upgrade (CRU) was born. The CRU utilized existing radar components from the deactivated PAVE PAWS SLBM warning site at El Dorado, Texas rather than building a completely new radar. Ground was broken for the new radar in April of 1998. The new radar is known as the Solid-State Phased-Array Radar System (SSPARS--pronounced ES-pars).
On 15 December 2000, after nearly 40 years of operation, the last of the original BMEWS radars ceased transmitting, and the SSPARS began 24-hour operations. Initial Operational Capability was declared on 31 January 2001.