List of Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) General Surveillance Radar Stations identifies those site by permanent identification code, NORAD identification code, station name, state, location coordinates, squadron/unit, when activated, and when inactivated.
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During the Cold War the United States Air Force assumed a burden for the defense of the skies over the United States. To coordinate this defense, a detection and command and control system had to be put in place. As a result of these many programs to guard against Soviet nuclear attack, 142 primary radar stations and 96 gap-filler radar sites were built and operated throughout the United States and Canada from the late 1940s into the 1990s.
As a result of technology evolving during the Cold War and the Soviet airborne bomber threat diminishing, many more of these facilities were abandoned or converted to other uses. Some of these facilities, however, still exist to provide intrusion warnings over the skies of North America, to monitor and control the thousands of commercial flights that fly the continental air routes daily, and to track objects in orbit over the western hemisphere.
Most of these stations were closed by 1983 with the inactivation of Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) and the introduction of the Joint Surveillance System, although a few remained active to limited extents until the late 1990s.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.