History of Port Austin AFS, MI

As a "'Lashup'" radar site, Port Austin began operating an AN/TPS-1C (TPS-1D?) in November 1951 (July 1951?). The site then joined the ''Permanent'' radar network, and the 754th AC&W Squadron began operations in June 1952 using an AN/FPS-3 set. An AN/CPS-4 was added in 1954. This radar was replaced in 1957 by an AN/FPS-6 height-finder radar. A second AN/FPS-6 height-finder radar was added a year later. In 1958 this site began operating an AN/FPS-20 radar, which replaced the AN/FPS-3. SAGE operations began in August 1959. An AN/FPS-27 FD search radar was planned, but was subsequently cancelled. In early 1962 the site received and operated an AN/FPS-24 FD search radar, and the AN/FPS-20 was retired. In 1964 an AN/FPS-26A FD height-finder radar was installed, and one AN/FPS-6 was removed later that year. The other AN/FPS-6 was removed in 1968. This site came under TAC control in October 1979. Circa 1982, the main bearing of the AN/FPS-24 search radar failed catastrophically. The FAA long-range radar site at Canton (Detroit), MI, was then used as a temporary data-tie site until an AN/FPS-91A search radar could be installed at Port Austin AFS in 1983. Also, the AN/FPS-26A was replaced by an AN/FPS-116 height-finder radar for the JSS Program. The site remained in use as a ''blue-suit'' site until 1988 when it was closed altogether, again replaced by the FAA radar site at Canton.



References: "Searching the Skies"; misc. ADCOM documents; eyewitness accounts.


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