Ground Equipment Facility QRC is an FAA radar station that was part of a Cold WarSAGE radar station for aircraft control and warning "from Massachusetts to southern Virginia, and as far out to sea as possible." Benton AFS was also the first operational "regional data processing center" for the GE 477L Nuclear Detection and Reporting System. The FAA facility and the larger area of the former :Category:Stations of the United States Air Force|Air Force Station are part of Ricketts Glen State Park.
History
The 648th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was activated on 30 April 1948 at Pine Camp, New York and began operations at the initial site with a General Electric AN/CPS-6B radar scanner. Site construction on had begun in 1950 and was completed September 21, 1951. On September 21, 1951, the last of the 658th personnel arrived at the site from Fort Indiantown Gap. The radar and operations moved to Ricketts Glen State Park, Pennsylvania, by 1 February 1952.
On 1 December 1953, the radar station at Ricketts Glen State Park was designated Benton Air Force Station which initially provided tracking data to a Manual Air Defense Control Center, e.g., on August 15, 1958, the 26th Air Division/Syracuse Air Defense Sector's "Combat Alert Center " at Roslyn AFS began using Benton data for manual GCI. But in less than two months, the "manual division" headquarters at Hancock Field/Syracuse AFS was eliminated--"the 26th was moved out of Roslyn and established at Syracuse as a SAGE division on 1 September" 1958. But did not become operational until 1 January 1959". On 1 July 1959, concurrent with the discontinuance of Eastern NORAD Region, the warning center was moved from Stewart AFB, New York, to Syracuse, New York, and redesignated the OCDM 26th Warning Center.''" Benton's data was initially entered in the "Manual Inputs" terminals of the Syracuse's SAGE Direction Center. A Burroughs AN/FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitting Set was installed early in 1960 to transmit data to the Syracuse DC and the May 1960 Highlands AADS. One of the 1st 4 Sperry AN/FPS-35 Frequency Diversity Radars became operational at Benton in 1961—the radar was with a red/white checkerboard pattern. A new GATR annex was completed "about from the main site as part of the SAGE modernization", and Benton AFS was assigned to the Boston Air Defense Sector on September 4, 1963. A "Two Row Angular Contact Ball" bearing that had been "procured as a spare for the Lincoln Labs CCM-Mark I Radar was installed in the AN/FPS-35 at Benton" and failed at 25,000 hours. "In 1963 the search radar was complemented by Avco AN/FPS-26A and an GE AN/FPS-6" to perform SAGE height finding requests.
FAA, NUDETS, and missile tracking operations
By the end of 1963 Benton AFS was a joint-use site for both the USAF and FAA, and Temperanceville stations and the 1st phase of the NUDETS "became operational on 1 July 1964 consisted of a regional data processing center at Benton AFS, Pa., and sensors located at Benton, Thomas, West Virginia, Manassas Air Force Station, and Hermanville, Maryland". Benton's FPS-35 was modified and "tested during the summer of 1962" to track Cape Canaveral missile launches, and Benton AFS had Backup Interceptor Control capability by December 1962. An AN/FPS-8 backup search radar owned/operated by the FAA was in place by September 1967, when new "AN/GPA-98, ECM training simulator, and AN/FYQ-47, the new digital data processor which replaces the AN/FST-2" were planned. Before 1974 when the AN/FPS-35 was replaced, FCC direction-finding equipment was used after the radar "scopes would light up like light bulbs" almost every morning for a half-hour—a noisy UHF TV tuner in the area was located which was being used for a "soap opera on one of the local channels".
Benton AFS and its USAF squadron were assigned to several larger units of Air Defense Command, but after data transmission was automated in 1960, its radar tracks were provided to more than one Direction Center :