Selfridge AFB radar station

Selfridge AFB radar station
call sign: Silvia
USAF General Surveillance Radar Station
Country	United States
State	Michigan
Command	Aerospace Defense Command
Location	point east of radar tower
- coordinates
Annexes	Gap Filler radar sites
- P-20A Burnside MI
- P-20B Emery MI
- P-20C Marblehead OH

External images
1960 radar station w/ tower (bunker site to left)
Missile Master complex in 1961 & c2004
radar station & "GATR site"

Selfridge AFB Army Air Defense Command Post
Army command and control facility
The Selfridge AADCP networked local radars (middle, bottom) and directed Michigan's Nike fire units--each with a network of 3 radars (top) for acquiring the target, tracking the target, and tracking/guiding the Nike missile.
Country	United States
State	Michigan
Region	Detroit Defense Area
Command	Army Air Defense Command
Parts	1957: AN/FSG-1 1967: AN/TSQ-51
Location	Missile Master nuclear bunker
- coordinates

The Selfridge AFB radar station began operations in 1949 with a Bendix AN/CPS-5 Radar test that tracked aircraft at 210 mi (340 km). A height finder MIT AN/CPS-4 Radar was added by March 9, 1950;[2] and the station was site L-17 of the Lashup Radar Network and site LP-17 of the subsequent network during construction of the Air Defense Command permanent network. The 661st Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was activated at Selfridge in 1951, and with a pair of General Electric AN/CPS-6 Radars the station became site LP-20 of the permanent ADC network in 1952. In 1957 the station added a height finder General Electric AN/FPS-6 Radar. The station became part of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment radar network in 1959, supplying radar tracks to SAGE data center DC-06 at Custer Air Force Station, Michigan, for directing interceptor aircraft and CIM-10 Bomarc air defense missiles.

By 1960, the AN/CPS-6 radar had been replaced by a Bendix AN/FPS-20 Radar for general surveillance, and the site had an additional General Electric AN/FPS-6A height-finder radar. A Sperry AN/FPS-35 radar installed at the station's tower in 1961 became operational in 1962, and the AN/FPS-6A height-finder was replaced with an Avco AN/FPS-26A Radar c. 1963. On 31 July 1963, Selfridge AFB was redesignated as NORAD site Z-20.

The 661st AC & WS also operated Gap Filler sites with Bendix AN/FPS-18 Radars before deactivating on July 1, 1974. The radar station was shared with the United States Army for Nike missile command-and-control.

In 1960, Army Air Defense Command Post (AADCP) D-15DC was constructed for coordinating Nike surface-to-air missile launches from numerous Michigan batteries from Algonac/Marine City (D-17) south to Carleton (D-57) & Newport (D-58). The AADCP closed when the Army deactivated the remaining D-06, D-58, & D-87 batteries in April 1974 at Utica, Newport, and Commerce/Union Lake.

The former radar station is the location of a United States Marine Corps Reserve unit and the Selfridge Military Air Museum & Air Park. The Missile Master bunker was subsequently used as a air traffic control centre manned by the 2031st Communications Squadron. Documents regarding the bunker, demolished in 2005, have been entered in the Historic American Engineering Record.