Bucks Harbor Air Force Station

Bucks Harbor Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 7.0mi south-southeast of Machias, Maine. It was closed in 1979 by the Air Force, and turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).Today the site is part of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS), designated by NORAD as Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) Ground Equipment Facility J-54.HistoryBucks Harbor was part of a planned deployment of forty-four Mobile radar stations in 1952, designated as a "Phase I Mobile Radar station". The station was designed to provide protection to Loring AFB. It was originally planned to be located at Corea, Maine, but in 1953 the Navy feared that the proposed site would interfere with a nearby radio interception and direction-finding facility.Funding, constant site changes, construction, and equipment delivery delayed the completion of Bucks Harbor AFS until 1955 when the 907th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (AC&W Sq)was moved from the Manual Air Defense Control Center (ADCC) at Syracuse AFS, NY on 1 March 1956. At Bucks Harbor, the 907th AC&W Sq began operating an AN/MPS-11 radar, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. In 1959 an AN/FPS-8 came to Bucks Harbor and this set subsequently was converted into an AN/GPS-3. In 1960 two AN/FPS-6A height-finder radars were activated and the site.