Louis Blotner Radar Bomb Scoring Site

Louis Blotner Radar Bomb Scoring Site
(moved to) Ashland Radar Station
military radar station
Country United States
State Maine
County Aroostook
Nearest AFB Loring Air Force Base
Location Blotner barracks
 - coordinates 47°00′30″N 68°01′07″W / 47.00833°N 68.01861°W [1]
Blotner area
Ashland area 		1 acres (0.4 ha) [2]
6.59 acres (2.67 ha)[3]
This article is about the two RBS sites near Connor, Maine. For the Connor NIKE launch area, see List of Nike missile locations#Maine.

The Louis Blotner Radar Bomb Scoring Site and the subsequent Ashland Radar Station were an 1963 June[4]-1990[5] Strategic Air Command AUTOTRACK radar site(s) operated by Detachment 7 of the 12th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron. The station simulated Electronic Countermeasures for the Ashland Training Range's low-level training route "over Bangor north to Houlton", Maine[2] (designated route "IR-800" by 1981).[6] Constructed at a 1957 NIKE battery control area (radar site) which had been conveyed to Blotner Trailer Sales in 1962,[1] the SAC radar station was initially a mobile site with temporarily emplaced systems.[7] In 1975 the site was planned to become permanent,[2] but instead groundbreaking in June 1979 was for a nearby radar station.[7][8]

Detachment 7 moved southwest[3] to the new Ashland Radar Station[8] south of Ashland, Maine.[2] The Ashland Strategic Training Range[9] eventually included an AN/MPS-T1 and Multiple Threat Emitter System (MUTES)[10] and in 1985, Det 7 was awarded the Combat Skyspot trophy.[9]

The "Blotner Site" was subsequently used for Louis Blotner Communications Facility No. 1 of Det 2, 1000 SOG in 1987-1993, and the enlisted men's barracks operated as a general store in August 1992.[1] In 1996 the former Ashland site was planned for civilian transfer.[11]


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "title tbd". Retrieved 2013-04-01. GPS 47-00-41, 68-01-11…16-unit housing area at was transferred to the Air Force and became Loring Family Housing Annex No. 3, NRCX
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Spruce, Christopher (September 5, 1975). "Ashland radar site aids Air Force training" (Google News Archive). Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2013-04-10. The Ashland radar site complex consists of a power production plant, a maintenance and supply area, a communications room, an operations area, administrative offices, and the radar scoring and ECM areas. Although the local RBS site is now permanent…We'll be having a full water supply and a sewer system. [Lt. Col. James H. Tiller, after being stationed at the Bismarck Bomb Plot, assumed] his first command at the Ashland site
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Off-Site Parcels [map]". Community Relations Plan - Loring Air Force Base (LORNG_AR_2069.pdf) (Report). AR File Number 2069 (Installation Restoration Program). Cambridge: WPI, Inc. May 1995. p. 37. Ashland Radar Bomb Scoring consists of 6.59 acre parcel in Ashland, southwest of Loring AFB. (map shows "Blotner Site" northeast of the "Det 7, 1st CEVG" site.)
  4. ↑ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bcx5Oy5tnlUJ:groups.yahoo.com/group/combatevaluationgroup/message/11782+blotner+%22bomb+plot%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  5. ↑ http://coldwarrelics.com/louis_blotner_bomb_scoring
  6. ↑ "title tbd". Air Force Magazine (Air Force Association). Retrieved 2013-04-10. (2011 transcription at FB-111A.net)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Permanent radar site construction begins" (Google News Archive). Bangor Daily News. June 4, 1979. Retrieved 2013-04-10. Lt. Col. Gene Riggs, Chief of Radar Bomb Development, Headquarters, 1st Combat Evaluation Group at Barksdale AFB, La.; Col. Anthony Papaner 1, Deputy Commander for Radar Bomb Scoring, Headquarters, at Barksdale …
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DAU1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=JE8KAAAAIBAJ&pg=2912,5447875&dq=combat-evaluation&hl=en
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Ashland group awarded Combat Skyspot trophy". Bangor Daily News. March 22, 1985. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  10. ↑ "Tidbit for the Gulf War Vets and D.G.". Pictures of bombers on D.G. [Diego Garcia] for 91 Gulf War. B52StratoFortressAssociation.yuku.com. October 25, 2003. Retrieved 2013-04-10. Multiple Threat Emitter System [is] capable of simulating many radar threats at once. We use IFF to track the plane and transmit the radar signals and the EWs or ECM Pods on the fighters respond … it takes a C-5 to airlift
  11. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19960314&id=8atJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fw4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=3343,3722979