1962 http://www.fortmiles.org/timeline.html#1960
DEC Spec 5 Earl Morris a United States Army Signal Corps soldier with the 35th Artillery (Air Defense) is assigned from the Missile Master site at Fort Meade, Maryland to the Missile Master Gap Filler Radar site at Fort Miles. The gap filler radar is atop casemate 519, that casemate is called Radar-1 by the men assigned there. The Missile Master at Fort Meade became operational in 1958; however, it is not known when Radar-1 was opened at Fort Miles.

Missile Master Gap Filler Radar 1
Missile Master was the system designed to create central control and guidance of the U.S.'s defensive
surface to air missiles. 
Prior to Missile Master, missiles were operated as seperate, independant batteries.
Missile Master's gole was to take these seperate batteries and link them together under the control of a single coordinated 



Radar sites like cell towers have "dead zones" in their coverage. For phones this is an annoyance.
In defense it's deadly.

In the Missile Master system "dead zones" in coverage were eliminated by remote "Gap Filler" sites.
Missile Mater at Fort Meade had two of these sites. 
Number 1 was located at Fort Miles.
Number 2 was located at Fort A.P. Hill.

Equipment and Layout at Missile Master Gap Filler Radar 1
During it's Gap Filler years Battery 519 was called Radar-1.
Radar-1 also had ties to the SAGE system. 
Miles had 2 components of SAGE, colsoles and data link. 
Radar dish/sail at Radar-1 sat atop the bunker over what was originally the Water Cooler Room.
The Water Cooler Room was redesignated the Radar Room.
Radar equipment that essentially amounted to dual TPS-1 setups were housed in the Radar Room.

E.J.Morris said that the radar equipment was stacked "3 high 2 wide". 
http://ed-thelen.org/ST-44-188-2G.pdf
TPS-1D Equipment was made up of 6 2'x2' stackable cubes.

These stacks most likley consisted of the following from the TPS-1D set.
Transceiver RT-212A, Signal Comparator CM-36A and Radar Modulator MD-144A.
Antenna Base AB-498 would not have been used.
Power Supply PP-674A most likely would have been replaced or upgraded as part of AN/FPS-69.
Azimuth and Range Indicator IP-141A was probably replaced by having a more modern and larger console in the console room.
IP-141A only has 1 cable going to it. 
This may be the 5-8 conductor cable that E.J.Morris mentioned going between the radar set and the console.


http://ed-thelen.org/ST-44-188-2G.pdf
"The electronic search central, AN/GSS-1 (fig 3), is a closed van that may be mounted on a
2-1/2 ton truck. The van has mountings for the AN/TPS-1G, an AN/TPX-19 IFF set, AN/GRC-9
and AN/GRR-5 radios, a plotting board, maintenance bench, and spare parts cabinets."

http://www.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no2/12_2earlyadvances.pdf

The Radar Room also had a closet on the SW side that housed radar test equipment.
An equipment room and a Console room were built inside the original Power (generator) room.
These rooms sat mostly over the old deeply recessed generator foundations.
The walls were cinderblock. Need to document (3) door locations.
The floor was what E.J.Morris considered "a standard data center floor with removable panels"..
.."kept clean, bright and shiny".
A flush "raised floor" over a recessed concrete floor about 8" below finished floor level.
Some amount of HVAC ducting went into or through the recessed floor.
The ceiling was a normal 2'X4'paneled drop ceiling whose panels would raise or float if the doors were opened or closed to fast.

Equipment housed in the equipment room is not yet known.
Some of the equipment was most likely to convert radar data into transmitable data to send to Missile Master and SAGE.
There is a SAGE Telephone building west of 519's PSR. I'm not sure what function it served.
Fort Miles also hosted a TROPO station at Battery Hunter. This station communicated with offshore "Doomsday Ships".
TROPO at other locations were part of the SAGE system. Did Miles' TROPO also tie into the SAGE system?

The Console room housed a Console simialar to a single BIRDIE console and ECCM equipment/console.
http://www.combatindex.com/store/tech_man/Sample/Radar/TM_11-5895-207-10.pdf
"Interrogator Set AN/TPX-26 (fig. 1) is a lightweight interrogator set designed for operation in conjunction with associated 
radar equipment (Radio Set AN/TPS-1D, Radio Set AN/TPS-1G, Radar Set AN/FPS-36, Radar Set AN/FPS-56, and Radar Surveillance Central AN/GSS-1)"

SIF vs IFF
SIF vs IFF (NRL)
SIF by 1954
IFF Interrogator Set AN/TPX-26 most likely sat with the ECCM equipment.
RADAR SET CONTROL GROUP AN/FPA-14. 
ECCM was AN/FPA-15 or AN/FPA-16.
An outside generator building was constructed to run all of the new radar equipment inside Radar-1.
No idea of what generators were used, size, capacity, auto-transfer, etc.

Looks like Radar-1 was part of a GSS-1 and part of a Single console BIRDIE.

Factors that may have led to Radar-1's deactivation in November 1963
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/art5-su9.htm
"The “bomber gap” controversy was put to rest by 1957. 
Photographic intelligence on Soviet bomber production collected by high-flying U-2 reconnaissance aircraft 
revealed that the Soviets were not rapidly building a fleet of long-range bombers;"

Partial Test Ban Treaty October 10, 1963

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/an-fsg-1.htm
"Missile Master was still a labor-intensive system that eventually became over-capable 
because the increased range of Nike Hercules 
reduced the number of batteries that needed to be coordinated. 
The Army tested Missile Master at Fort Meade, Maryland."

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/nike-ajax.htm
In June 1958, a process of conversion to the longer range Nike Hercules missile began.
Subsequently, the Nike Ajax batteries were either modified to accept the new missile or deactivated.
In November 1963, Site N-63 guarding Norfolk, Virginia, was the last Nike Ajax battery to be deactivated.

1963 http://www.fortmiles.org/timeline.html#1960
NOV The Missile Master gap filler at Fort Miles is deactivated.
The Gap Filler Station at Bethany was originally a WWII installation.
Based on documents and E.J.Morris' lack of knowledge of it, it was most likely a SAGE Gap Filler not affiliated with Fort Miles in any way.

created 11-30-2009
Last Update: .