In addition to the "original camp area" with buildings still in use today,[2] areas of the station include the airfield (ICAO: PACL), the "SSPARS Site"[3] the technical site (Utilador,[4] BMEWS reflectors, support buildings, power plant), and the composite site (two permanent dormitories, a mess hall, recreation area, and administrative area).[citation needed] In addition to the Air National Guard unit, Clear has active duty USSF, Royal Canadian Air Force, civilian, and contractor personnel.
In May 1958 total costs for the planned Thule and Clear BMEWS stations were estimated at ~$800 million. In October 1958 they were both estimated to be completed in September 1960.[6] An additional 10-by-40-mile (16 km × 64 km) area[citation needed] was appropriated for BMEWS Site II (cf.BMEWS Site I at Thule).
Clear Missile Early Warning Station construction began in August 1958 with 700 workers[7]—i.e., a "construction" camp was being erected in September 1958 by "Patti-McDonald and Morrison-Knudsen"[8] next to the railroad[citation needed] (for $1.7 million, 40,000 ft of railroad were moved by 1959.)[9] Groundbreaking for radar structures was May 1959[citation needed] ("Baker and Ford built a transmitter and computer building; a heat dissipation system; a radar transmitter building; wells and pumphouses; a fire station; and utilities")[9] and the AN/FPS-50 pedestals were complete by June 2, 1959.[10] In 1959[11] after the original White Alice Communications System contract, "the next segment of WACS... was series of TD-2 microwave installations to support... two routes [that] linked the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Site (BMEWS) at Clear AFB... one going down the southeast coast (the A route) to the Ketchikan-Seattle submarine cable*, and the other, going east to the Canada–US border (B Route) through Canada, down to the lower 48 which was Clear's Rearward Communications System to Murphy Dome (A Route) and the Gold King Creek AFS (B Route) with data for the Ent AFB CC&DF.[12]
Three GE AN/FPS-50 Radar Sets were installed with antenna reflectors 165 by 400 feet (50 m × 122 m) that each weigh 1,000 short tons (910 t; 890 long tons). The "Building Two" middle transmitter building had the radar control room[verification needed] and room with the Sylvania AN/FSQ-28 Missile Impact Predictor Set.[13]
Clear transferred to Air Defense Command in November 1961.[citation needed] By mid-1962, BMEWS "quick fixes" for ECCM had been installed at Thule and Clear[15] and by June 30, 1962, Ent AFB integration of BMEWS and SPADATS data was completed.[16] On July 31, 1962, NORAD recommended a tracking radar at Clear to close the BMEWS gap with Thule for low-angle missiles vice those with the 15-65 degree angle for which BMEWS was designed[15] (North Dakota's Cavalier AFSradar built in 1975 currently monitors for Hudson Bay launches.)
Missile warning operations
Detachment 2 of the 71st Missile Warning Wing was responsible for operations by civilian contractor personnel until 1964, when Air Force personnel began permanently manning the Tactical Operations Room (TOR).[citation needed]
In 1966, the last of the five BMEWS tracking radars was installed, an RCA AN/FPS-92 Radar Set with an 84-foot (26 m) diameter antenna[citation needed] housed in a 42.7-meter (140 ft) diameter radome.[17][18][19] The FPS-92 was an improved AN/FPS-49 Radar Set variant with radome blocks having two high-density 1 millimeter thick skins that cover a 15 centimeter thick Kraft-paper core (total of 1,646 hexagonal and pentagonal blocks[20] (the hexagonal blocks were "66-inch panels".)[21] The completion of the FPS-92 raised the final construction price of the missile warning system at Clear to $300 million. $62 million of this figure had been spent by the Alaska District of the Corps of Engineers.)[9]
Clear provided emergency shelter for 216 flood refugees during August 1967, the same year many "temporary" buildings were replaced. Personnel at the installation subsequently provided measurements for a University of Alaska experiment which injected sulfur hexafluoride into the upper atmosphere to see if the Aurora Borealis could be affected.[citation needed] Clear had Bomb Alarm System equipment installed by the time the BAS was accepted on 10 February 1961.[22] The BAS was deactivated in 1970.[6] In 1975, the Secretary of Defense told Congress that Clear Air Force Station would be closed when the Shemya Island and Beale AFB radars became operational.[23] After a Thule radome fire, Clear's FPS-92 radome was replaced in 1981 by first disassembling the tracker, constructing the new radome, and reconstructing the FPS-92.[24] Clear's 1st all-female crew pulled its 1st shift on February 28, 1986 (the 1st female, Lt. Anderson was assigned in 1973.)
Beginning in 1987, ITT operated and maintained the Clear BMEWS
under a USAF Space Command contract[20] and in the 1990s, the Southwest Research Institute upgraded Clear's pulse modulator for the transmitter final-stage power amplifier.[25]
On April 16, 1998, groundbreaking for installing 1987 AN/FPS-115 PAVE PAWS components from Texas (e.g., the array elements) was held at Clear[26] for the more advanced Raytheon AN/FPS-120[26] with 2500 "solid state transmitter" modules.[27] On December 15, 2000, the FPS-50 and −92 transmissions ceased[citation needed] (all of the Arecibo Observatory's Litton L-5773 klystrons were obtained as surplus from Clear's decommissioned BMEWS transmitters.)[28] Clear's FPS-120 began 24-hour operations[citation needed] when Clear's SSPARS Site (separate from the BMEWS site) had Initial Operational Capability on January 31, 2001; the date the entire SSPARS became operational[29] (SSPARS sites were modified in the Early Warning Radar Service Life Extension Program.)[30]
^Installation Restoration Program Preliminary Assessment: Gold King Creek Radio Relay Station, Alaska(PDF) (Report). Hazardous Materials Technical Center. April 1989. Archived(PDF) from the original on April 16, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-14. The RRS originally consisted of one radio relay building, one microwave tower enclosed by a chain link fence, and a 2,050-foot runway. These facilities total 30.32 acres. Two 14,000-gallon steel underground diesel fuel storage tanks are located west of the building. Figure 3 shows the original facilities at Gold King Creek RRS.
^Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases(PDF) (Report). Vol. I: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Office of Air Force History. p. 600. ISBN0-912799-53-6. Retrieved 2013-08-15. Gold King Creek AFS (rdsgd Gold King Creek RR Site) (detchd instl), 45 mi NE of Fairbanks, AK, 16 Jul 1959 (dsgd)... Wideawake Fld (rdsgd Ascension Isl Aux Fid)... Ascension Isl, South Atlantic Ocean, 25 Jun 1956 (actvd)
^Del Papa, Dr. E. Michael; Warner, Mary P (October 1987). A Historical Chronology of the Electronic Systems Division 1947-1986(PDF) (Report). Archived(PDF) from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved 2014-03-08. 7 November [1984] Installation of [SSPARS] radar hardware at Site I, Thule, Greenland, for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was begun.
^Grimes, M. D.; Grothaus, M. G.; North, W. R.; Brittain, D.; Norander, R.; Kajonpong, D. (1 July 1995). "A new modulator design for the BMEWS transmitter". Digest of Technical Papers. Tenth IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference. Vol. 1. pp. 688–693 vol.1. doi:10.1109/PPC.1995.596791. ISBN0-7803-2791-8. S2CID109329176 – via IEEE Xplore.
