Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site

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The Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site (callsign Badlands Bomb Plot) opened in August 1960 [1] on Hurley Butte ( 43°43′11″N102°08′35″W / 43.719846°N 102.14294°W / 43.719846; -102.14294 ), adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and a few miles from Interior, South Dakota. [2] The Interior RBSS is a Formerly Used Defense Site, that closed in 1968.

History

It replaced the Los Angeles Bomb Plot at Cheli AFS. Operated and maintained by Detachment 2 of the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron, Radar Bomb Scoring Division, 1st Combat Evaluation Group (initially by temporary duty personnel), the RBS site was 1 of ~14 that remained after the 1965-6 deployment of RBS site personnel for Vietnam Combat Skyspot.

Family housing for the detachment was on the western edge of Wall, South Dakota, and barracks initially used for the station were shared by Boeing facility contractors for the Ellsworth Air Force Base 850th Strategic Missile Squadron's HGM-25A Titan I ICBMs.

At the end of the Cold War, numerous nearby radar sites for RBS and electronic warfare simulation included those at the Alzada (2 sites), Ekalaka, & Hulett Mini-Mutes Radar Sites, the Clark & Colony Radar Bomb Scoring Sites, and the "Ellsworth Air Force Base" sites (Belle Fourche, Colmer, & Horman Radar Bomb Scoring Sites and the Antelope Butte Mini Mute Radar Bomb Scoring Site). [3]

The Interior Family Housing Site, a "detached installation" of Barksdale Air Force Base provided homes from 26 June 1968 to 30 April 1969. [4] Det 2 moved to the Holbrook Bomb Plot in Arizona in 1968. [5] Concrete pads at Hurley Butte remain from when the RBS equipment and personnel transferred to Holbrook, Arizona (1968-1993) merged w/ Det 19 Poplar MT [2] to move to Det 4 Harrison AR). [6]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Badlands Bombing Range</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawthorne Bomb Plot</span> Formerly Used Defense Site in Nevada

Hawthorne Bomb Plot is a Formerly Used Defense Site that had a Strategic Air Command (SAC) AUTOTRACK radar station during the Cold War. Operations began at a temporary RBS train site for RBS Express #2 was at the Hawthorne area in December 1961, and the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron subsequently established the fixed military installation for Radar Bomb Scoring in Babbitt, Nevada, the military housing community near the local Navy/Army depot.

The Salt Lake City Radar Bomb Scoring Site is a Formerly Used Defense Site that was an automatic tracking (AUTOTRACK) radar station during the Cold War. Operated by Detachment 6 of the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron which had relocated from the Phoenix semi-mobile RBS station in December 1964, the military installation evaluated practice bomb runs by Strategic Air Command simulating attacks on the metropolitan area and on the Hill Air Force Range which had been the Salt Lake City Army Air Base Gunnery Range in World War II.

Hurley Butte is an elevated landform in the South Dakota Badlands that is the location of a Formerly Used Defense Site adjacent to the Pine Ridge Reservation and a few miles from Interior, South Dakota. The Strategic Air Command used Hurley Butte for the Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site prior to establishing the Belle Fourche Strategic Training Range in the Devil's Tower/Black Hills area of Ellsworth Air Force Base. The base of the site remains visible at 43.719846°N 102.14294°W.

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Holbrook Radar Bomb Scoring Site is a Formerly Used Defense Site of 8 acres (3.2 ha) near Winslow, Arizona, that was used as a Cold War Strategic Air Command radar station for the Holbrook Radar Bomb Scoring Range. Detachment 2 of the Radar Bomb Scoring Division transferred its personnel and equipment from the South Dakota Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site Spring 1968. The site had a housing area, and after the division became the 1st Electronic Combat Range Group (1ECRG), in August 1989 the detachment and site transferred from the 1ECRG to the 99th Strategic Weapons Wing.

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Ashland Radar Station was a United States Air Force station located in Ashland, Maine operational from around 1975 to 1990. Sitting on 6.59 acres (2.67 ha).

References

  1. ↑ MacDonald, Ray (29 January 2002). "1 CEVG/DET 2 History (A fluid Document)". 1CEVGA.com.
    2. "Detachment 2 Holbrook, AZ". 1 CEVG/DET 2 History (A fluid Document). Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Combat Evaluation Group - A place for CEVG'ers and Range Rats to Meet".    Citations in chronological order:
    • johnd584 (26 November 2004). "Message 11827". 11th RBS express set up in Rhame ND and Capt Reeves from Bismarck was the commander in summer of 1961 or 62{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
    • Reyburn, David W (29 November 2004). "Re: Re: [Combat Evaluation Group] Re: RBS Express". train in Deeth, Nevada in April 1, 1963…train in Igloo, S.D. the middle of August 1963 and was there until we moved the train to Vaughn, N.M. the first of Oct. 1963…Train at Creston, WY the first of April…left for the Train Nov 12, 1964 for Moulton, Iowa…train and moved it to Scott City, KS…Left the train About February 25, 1965… train in Oberlin, LA in the middle of August 1965
    • McAfee, Emerson R. "tbd". train. … Several of us…volunteered to go to Lake City in 1964… And we had all kinds of volunteers for Mayfield, KY
    • Withers, Daniel A (17 February 2005). "Message 13073". Closing Deeth (literally), we relocated to the New Mexico garden spot of Vaughn.
    • McAfee, Emerson R (6 August 2005). "Re: Greetings!". I was at Det. 8 Richmond from Jun 63-Apr 72. I also made trips to Browns IL but we were the ones who moved it from Mauk GA to Browns so I was only at Browns for about a week
    • Hirsch, Ken (6 August 2005). "Message tbd". I was stationed at Detachment 3, Statesboro, GA from Oct. 1963 - Sept. 1966. Tours on the RBS Express were at…Browns, IL; Jonesboro, AR; Train on display in Philadelphia, PA; Mount Pleasant, TN and Port Henry, NY (2 tours - I liked it up there!).
    • Avery, Jim (8 August 2005). "Message 15844". We actually moved the train from Lake City, SC to Browns, IL. (The train moved from Mauk, GA to Thoreau, NM)."
    • Ross, Don (30 August 2007). "Sqdns, Det 4 and Germany" (Yahoo newsgroup). Retrieved 9 July 2012. three RBS Express trains. One per sqdn
    • Skinner, Don (31 July 2010). "Memories/1CEG" . Retrieved 24 September 2012. I spent the first 3 months of 1964 on RBS Express at Thoreau, NM as maintenance man
  3. ↑ 2012 Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS): Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land (PDF) (Map). Cartography by Geography Division. United States Census Bureau. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Mueller (1982), Air Force Bases, p. 18
  5. ↑ ""Holbrook Air Force Station" OR "Holbrook Bomb Plot" - Google Search".
  6. ↑ "Detachment 2 Holbrook, AZ" (history anecdote). 1CEVGA.com. 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2013.


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