Cape Lisburne Air Force Station
Encyclopedia
Cape Lisburne Air Force Station (AAC ID: F-07, LRR ID: A-19, DEW ID: LIZ-1) is a closed United States Air Force
General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 276.5 miles (445 km) west-southwest of Point Barrow, Alaska.
The radar surveillance station was closed on 1 November 1983, and was re-designated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) site as part of the Alaska Radar System. Today, it remains active as part of the Alaska NORAD Region under the jurisdiction of the 611th Air and Space Operations Center
, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.
on Alaska. It was one of the ten original radar surveillance sites constructed during the early 1950s to establish a permanent air defense system in Alaska.
An assignment to the station was one of the most remote tours which an Airman could serve during its operational lifetime.
The station was located at Cape Lisburne, a bleak, treeless location in the most northwestern point in Alaska between the Arctic Ocean
and the Chuckchi Sea, some 570 miles northwest of Fairbanks
. There are no permanent residents at the site, and Point Hope is the nearest community, 25 miles to the southwest. The site is accessible only by sea and air. "Summer" lasts only three months, as does the appearance of the sun.
The first western explorer to arrive at Cape Lisburne was Captain James Cook in his search for a Northwest Passage
from the Pacific
to the Atlantic Ocean
. He gave the location its name (Cape Lisbourne), the reason for the name being lost in the passage of time. A small Eskimo
settlement, Wevok, existed for a short period of time in an area on the western side of what would become the Air Force Station. Wevok was a stopover point for Eskimos from Point Hope who followed the winter trail to Point Barrow in search of polar bears. A missionary lived with the Eskimos at Wevok in the late 19th, early 20th century. He, along with several natives, are buried in a small cemetery on the western side of the Air Force station. Wevok was abandoned early in the 1900s, and other than the cemetery there is nothing which remains of it.
In the late 1940s with the outbreak of the Cold War
, the United States Air Force decided to expand the aircraft control and warning system in the Alaska Territory
. This expansion involved the establishment of several new radar surveillance stations, one of which was Cape Lisburne.
The first Airmen to arrive at the station was Detachment F-7, 142d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W Sq) on 21 June 1951 during the site construction period. The unit consisted to two officers and 29 enlisted men. Their mission was to provide site security and establish a temporarily work camp, consisting of tents. 550 tons of cargo arrived by ship along with the airmen, and high winds, rain, and heavy seas made the operation hazardous to all involved. During the first year, supplies and food were airdropped to the workers and airmen, many times it drifting into the ocean and being lost. During the first winter, the detachment was reduced to one officer and 14 Airmen. The Army Transportation Corps undertook the construction project, code name Mona Lisa, of getting the initial supplies and equipment to the construction site. The only means of getting construction materials and supplies to the site was by barge or Navy LSTs; however, this was restricted to when the sea was not frozen. The ground support station was located on the northern coast of the peninsula, 68°52′19"N 166°05′11"W. A 4,800' airstrip was constructed in 1951 adjacent to the ground support station, with a gravel runway capable of medium transport (C-118, C-130) 68°52′30"N 166°06′36"W landings and takeoffs.
The station (bottom camp) consisted of a power/heating plant, water and fuel storage tanks, gymnasium and other support office buildings. Two other buildings contained living quarters, work areas, and recreational facilities plus opportunities for such sports as skiing, skating, horseshoes, and basketball. The buildings were connected by enclosed portals so no one needed to go outside in winter unless absolutely necessary. Tours at the station were limited to one year because of the psychological strain and physical hardships. Mail was usually delivered twice a week. The inaccessibility made the personnel at the site responsible for maintenance if anything went wrong. Water mains occasionally froze and ruptured.
Given the close proximity of the new base to Siberia, an air attack was a serious concern during the early years of the Cold War. An M51 trailer-mounted M-55 .50 Multiple quad machine gun was installed at the station for defense. Capable of firing at a rate of 450 to 575 rounds per minute per gun, this weapon was particularly lethal when applied to ground targets in the field.
Initially, there were no roads, which had to be built as part of the construction effort to reach the top camp. The radar site (top camp) was sited on the summit of a 1,600 foot mountain located 2 miles south-southeast of bottom camp. It was reached via an access road built along the side of a mountain, about 4 miles in length. Radars were installed at the top camp in October 1952. Radars at top camp included an AN/FPS-3, AN/FPS-20A and an AN/FPS-93A.
On 8 December 1952, the 711th AC&W Sq was actoivated to replace the National Guardsmen and the station went operational. As a surveillance station, Cape Lisburne provided information 24/7 to the Air Defense Direction Center at Murphy Dome AFS near Fairbanks, where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile.
Communications were initially provided by a high frequency radio system which proved unreliable because of atmospheric disturbances. The Alaskan Air Command, after investigating various options, decided to build the White Alice Communications System
, a system of Air Force-owned tropospheric scatter and microwave radio relay sites operated by the Air Force Communications Service (AFCS). The Cape Lisburne site 68°52′11"N 166°08′56"W was activated in 1957. It was inactivated in 1979, and replaced by an Alascom owned and operated satellite earth terminal as part of an Air Force plan to divest itself of the obsolete White Alice Communications System and transfer the responsibility to a commercial firm.
In 1955 Cape Lisburne became part of the Distant Early Warning Line
(DEW Line), the most westernmost station on the line which stretched east across the northern part of Alaska, Canada
and into Greenland
. The station received an AN/FPS-19 pulse radar and was designated as station LIZ-1. It remained a manned station on the line until DEW Operationc ceased in 1983 when the station became an AN/FPS-117 Minimally Attended Radar station and is now part of the NORAD North Warning System
(NWS).
Over the years, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. In 1983, Cape Lisburne AFS received a new AN/FPS-117
minimally attended radar under Alaskan Air Command's Seek Igloo program . It was designed to transmit aircraft tracking data via satellite to the Alaskan NORAD Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Elmendorf AFB.
No longer needed, the 711th AC&W Sq was inactivated on 1 November 1983 and the station redesignated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) Site. In 1990, jurisdiction of the Indian Mountain LRR Site was transferred to Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)'s Eleventh Air Force
with the redesignation of AAC.
In 1998 PACAF initiated "Operation Clean Sweep", in which abandoned Cold War stations in Alaska were remediated and the land restored to its previous state. After years of neglect the facilities at the station had lost any value they had when the site was closed. The site remediation of the radar, support and White Alice communication station was carried out by the 611th Civil Engineering Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, and remediation work was completed by 2005. Today very little of the former Cape Lisburne Air Force Station remains.
. The LIZ sector was the most westernmost point of the network, composed of a series of surveillance radar stations along the northwest Alaska Coast to Icy Cape (LIZ-B), about 140 miles to the northeast.
Cape Lisburne controlled five manned stations, two of them being classified as "Auxiliary" sites and three "Intermediate" stations. The Auxiliary stations were similar to the main site at Cape Lisburne; the Intermediate sites having less personnel at them. The stations were made up of an AN/FPS-19 search radar, a high power L-Band radar consisting of two identical radar sets feeding a dual (back to back) antenna with a range of about 160 nautical miles. The sites had one 25-man module building for personnel who supported the radar, and an airstrip, although the length and capacity varied greatly, making frequent risky landings necessary at some sites.
Each of the sites were staffed by civilian contract workers who had signed 18-month contracts, although they were visited by Air Force military personnel from Cape Lisburne frequently.
With the signing of North American Air Defence Modernization agreement at the "Shamrock Summit" between Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan in Quebec City on 18 March 1985 the DEW Line began its eventual upgrading and transition becoming the North Warning System
(NWS) of today. The intermediate sites were closed in 1963 due to the advancements in radar technology. Point Lay was closed in 1994 and Wainright in 2007 due to soil erosion & budget concerns. The closed sites were remediated by the Air Force around 1998, removing all abandoned military structures and returning the site to a natural condition.
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 276.5 miles (445 km) west-southwest of Point Barrow, Alaska.
The radar surveillance station was closed on 1 November 1983, and was re-designated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) site as part of the Alaska Radar System. Today, it remains active as part of the Alaska NORAD Region under the jurisdiction of the 611th Air and Space Operations Center
611th Air Operations Group
The 611th Air Operations Group, based at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska consists of five squadrons and two numbered flights that develop plans, procedures and directives for the employment of Alaskan combat and support forces assigned to the 11th Air Force, PACAF and NORAD. They maintain air...
, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.
History
Cape Lisburne AFS was a continental defence radar station constructed to provide the United States Air Force early warning of an attack by the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
on Alaska. It was one of the ten original radar surveillance sites constructed during the early 1950s to establish a permanent air defense system in Alaska.
An assignment to the station was one of the most remote tours which an Airman could serve during its operational lifetime.
The station was located at Cape Lisburne, a bleak, treeless location in the most northwestern point in Alaska between the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
and the Chuckchi Sea, some 570 miles northwest of Fairbanks
Fairbanks
Fairbanks may refer to:Places in the United States*Fairbanks, Alaska, city*Fairbanks, California, unincorporated community in El Dorado County*Fairbanks, Mendocino County, California, former settlement*Fairbanks, Indiana, unincorporated community...
. There are no permanent residents at the site, and Point Hope is the nearest community, 25 miles to the southwest. The site is accessible only by sea and air. "Summer" lasts only three months, as does the appearance of the sun.
The first western explorer to arrive at Cape Lisburne was Captain James Cook in his search for a Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
from the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
to the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. He gave the location its name (Cape Lisbourne), the reason for the name being lost in the passage of time. A small Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
settlement, Wevok, existed for a short period of time in an area on the western side of what would become the Air Force Station. Wevok was a stopover point for Eskimos from Point Hope who followed the winter trail to Point Barrow in search of polar bears. A missionary lived with the Eskimos at Wevok in the late 19th, early 20th century. He, along with several natives, are buried in a small cemetery on the western side of the Air Force station. Wevok was abandoned early in the 1900s, and other than the cemetery there is nothing which remains of it.
In the late 1940s with the outbreak of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the United States Air Force decided to expand the aircraft control and warning system in the Alaska Territory
Alaska Territory
The Territory of Alaska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 24, 1912, until January 3, 1959, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alaska...
. This expansion involved the establishment of several new radar surveillance stations, one of which was Cape Lisburne.
The first Airmen to arrive at the station was Detachment F-7, 142d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W Sq) on 21 June 1951 during the site construction period. The unit consisted to two officers and 29 enlisted men. Their mission was to provide site security and establish a temporarily work camp, consisting of tents. 550 tons of cargo arrived by ship along with the airmen, and high winds, rain, and heavy seas made the operation hazardous to all involved. During the first year, supplies and food were airdropped to the workers and airmen, many times it drifting into the ocean and being lost. During the first winter, the detachment was reduced to one officer and 14 Airmen. The Army Transportation Corps undertook the construction project, code name Mona Lisa, of getting the initial supplies and equipment to the construction site. The only means of getting construction materials and supplies to the site was by barge or Navy LSTs; however, this was restricted to when the sea was not frozen. The ground support station was located on the northern coast of the peninsula, 68°52′19"N 166°05′11"W. A 4,800' airstrip was constructed in 1951 adjacent to the ground support station, with a gravel runway capable of medium transport (C-118, C-130) 68°52′30"N 166°06′36"W landings and takeoffs.
The station (bottom camp) consisted of a power/heating plant, water and fuel storage tanks, gymnasium and other support office buildings. Two other buildings contained living quarters, work areas, and recreational facilities plus opportunities for such sports as skiing, skating, horseshoes, and basketball. The buildings were connected by enclosed portals so no one needed to go outside in winter unless absolutely necessary. Tours at the station were limited to one year because of the psychological strain and physical hardships. Mail was usually delivered twice a week. The inaccessibility made the personnel at the site responsible for maintenance if anything went wrong. Water mains occasionally froze and ruptured.
Given the close proximity of the new base to Siberia, an air attack was a serious concern during the early years of the Cold War. An M51 trailer-mounted M-55 .50 Multiple quad machine gun was installed at the station for defense. Capable of firing at a rate of 450 to 575 rounds per minute per gun, this weapon was particularly lethal when applied to ground targets in the field.
Initially, there were no roads, which had to be built as part of the construction effort to reach the top camp. The radar site (top camp) was sited on the summit of a 1,600 foot mountain located 2 miles south-southeast of bottom camp. It was reached via an access road built along the side of a mountain, about 4 miles in length. Radars were installed at the top camp in October 1952. Radars at top camp included an AN/FPS-3, AN/FPS-20A and an AN/FPS-93A.
On 8 December 1952, the 711th AC&W Sq was actoivated to replace the National Guardsmen and the station went operational. As a surveillance station, Cape Lisburne provided information 24/7 to the Air Defense Direction Center at Murphy Dome AFS near Fairbanks, where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile.
Communications were initially provided by a high frequency radio system which proved unreliable because of atmospheric disturbances. The Alaskan Air Command, after investigating various options, decided to build the White Alice Communications System
White Alice Communications System
The White Alice Communications System was a United States Air Force telecommunication link system constructed in Alaska during the cold war. It featured tropospheric scatter links and line-of-sight microwave radio links...
, a system of Air Force-owned tropospheric scatter and microwave radio relay sites operated by the Air Force Communications Service (AFCS). The Cape Lisburne site 68°52′11"N 166°08′56"W was activated in 1957. It was inactivated in 1979, and replaced by an Alascom owned and operated satellite earth terminal as part of an Air Force plan to divest itself of the obsolete White Alice Communications System and transfer the responsibility to a commercial firm.
In 1955 Cape Lisburne became part of the Distant Early Warning Line
Distant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...
(DEW Line), the most westernmost station on the line which stretched east across the northern part of Alaska, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and into Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. The station received an AN/FPS-19 pulse radar and was designated as station LIZ-1. It remained a manned station on the line until DEW Operationc ceased in 1983 when the station became an AN/FPS-117 Minimally Attended Radar station and is now part of the NORAD North Warning System
North Warning System
The North Warning System is a joint United States and Canadian radar system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It provides surveillance of airspace from potential incursions or attacks from across North America's polar region...
(NWS).
Over the years, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. In 1983, Cape Lisburne AFS received a new AN/FPS-117
AN/FPS-117
The AN/FPS-117 is a phased array, 3-dimensional air search radar. It is produced by the Lockheed Martin corporation from the United States.The system is a low power, long range , L-band pencil beam, solid-state transmitter and beacon interrogator search radar...
minimally attended radar under Alaskan Air Command's Seek Igloo program . It was designed to transmit aircraft tracking data via satellite to the Alaskan NORAD Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Elmendorf AFB.
No longer needed, the 711th AC&W Sq was inactivated on 1 November 1983 and the station redesignated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) Site. In 1990, jurisdiction of the Indian Mountain LRR Site was transferred to Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)'s Eleventh Air Force
Eleventh Air Force
The Eleventh Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska....
with the redesignation of AAC.
In 1998 PACAF initiated "Operation Clean Sweep", in which abandoned Cold War stations in Alaska were remediated and the land restored to its previous state. After years of neglect the facilities at the station had lost any value they had when the site was closed. The site remediation of the radar, support and White Alice communication station was carried out by the 611th Civil Engineering Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, and remediation work was completed by 2005. Today very little of the former Cape Lisburne Air Force Station remains.
Distant Early Warning Line support
Beginning in July 1957, Cape Lisburne AFS controlled a sector of the Distant Early Warning LineDistant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...
. The LIZ sector was the most westernmost point of the network, composed of a series of surveillance radar stations along the northwest Alaska Coast to Icy Cape (LIZ-B), about 140 miles to the northeast.
Cape Lisburne controlled five manned stations, two of them being classified as "Auxiliary" sites and three "Intermediate" stations. The Auxiliary stations were similar to the main site at Cape Lisburne; the Intermediate sites having less personnel at them. The stations were made up of an AN/FPS-19 search radar, a high power L-Band radar consisting of two identical radar sets feeding a dual (back to back) antenna with a range of about 160 nautical miles. The sites had one 25-man module building for personnel who supported the radar, and an airstrip, although the length and capacity varied greatly, making frequent risky landings necessary at some sites.
Each of the sites were staffed by civilian contract workers who had signed 18-month contracts, although they were visited by Air Force military personnel from Cape Lisburne frequently.
| DEW ID | LRRS ID | Site Name | Location | Activated | Inactivated | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIZ-2 | A-15 | Point Lay LRRS Point Lay LRRS Airport Point Lay LRRS Airport is a public and military use airport owned by the United States Government and located in Point Lay, in the North Slope Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is also known as Point Lay Airport... |
69°43′56"N 163°00′34"W | 1957 | 1994 | DEW Auxiliary site, operations ended 1989; Became part of the North Warning System (NWS) in 1990 with AN/FPS-124 SRR, now inactivated. |
| LIZ-3 | A-16 | Wainwright SRRS Wainwright Airport (Alaska) Wainwright Airport is a public use airport located in Wainwright, a city in the North Slope Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. The airport is owned by the North Slope Borough.... |
70°36′37"N 159°52′12"W | 1953 | 2007 | DEW Auxiliary site, operations ended 1995; Became part of the North Warning System (NWS) in 1995 with AN/FPS-124 SRR, now inactivated |
| LIZ-A | Cape Sabine | 69°01′27"N 163°51′25"W | 1957 | 1963 | DEW Intermediate Site | |
| LIZ-B | Icy Cape Icy Cape DEW Line Station Icy Cape DEW Line Station is an abandoned United States Air Force Distant Early Warning Line Radar station. It was closed in 1963.-History:The Station was built in 1957 to support the Distant Early Warning Line as Icy Cape... |
70°17′23"N 161°54′40"W | 1957 | 1963 | DEW Intermediate Site | |
| LIZ-C | Peard Bay Peard Bay DEW Line Station Peard Bay DEW Line Station is an abandoned United States Air Force Distant Early Warning Line Radar station. It was closed in 1963.-History:The Station was built in 1957 to support the Distant Early Warning Line as Peard Bay... |
70°48′29"N 158°15′32"W | 1957 | 1963 | DEW Intermediate Site | |
With the signing of North American Air Defence Modernization agreement at the "Shamrock Summit" between Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan in Quebec City on 18 March 1985 the DEW Line began its eventual upgrading and transition becoming the North Warning System
North Warning System
The North Warning System is a joint United States and Canadian radar system for the atmospheric air defense of North America. It provides surveillance of airspace from potential incursions or attacks from across North America's polar region...
(NWS) of today. The intermediate sites were closed in 1963 due to the advancements in radar technology. Point Lay was closed in 1994 and Wainright in 2007 due to soil erosion & budget concerns. The closed sites were remediated by the Air Force around 1998, removing all abandoned military structures and returning the site to a natural condition.
Current status
Today the site is controlled by the PACAF's 611th Air and Space Operations Center, based at Elmendorf AFB. The site is generally unattended; a few civilian contractors access the site by former support airstrip, now the Cape Lisburne LRRS Airport and provide maintenance and support when needed to maintain the radar system.Air Force units and assignments
Units
- 711th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron
- Activated on 8 December 1953
- Inactivated on 1 November 1983
Assignments
- 160th Aircraft Control and Warning Group, 8 December 1952
- 548th Aircraft Control and Warning Group, 5 February 1953
- 11th Air Division, 18 April 1953
- 5001st Air Defense Group 20 September 1954
- 10th Air Division, 1 October 1955
- 5060th Aircraft Control and Warning Group, 1 November 1957
- 11th Air Division, ca. 1 July 1959
- 5070th Air Defense Wing5070th Air Defense WingThe 5070th Air Defense Wing is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the Alaskan Air Command, being stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. It was inactivated on 1 October 1961-Lineage:...
, 1 August 1960 - Alaskan Air Command, 1 November 1961
- 531st Aircraft Control and Warning Group (later 11th Tactical Control Group, 11th Tactical Control Wing, 11th Air Control Wing, 611th Air Operations Group, 611th Air and Space Operations Center) 15 July 1977