Salt Lake City Radar Bomb Scoring Site Explained

The Salt Lake City Radar Bomb Scoring Site ("Salt Lake Bomb Plot")http://airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=AssignmentExt&ID=212804 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,[1] the military installation evaluated practice bomb runs by Strategic Air Command simulating attacks on the metropolitan area (e.g., during the 1955 Bombing and Navigation Competition)[2] and on the Hill Air Force Range[3] which had been the Salt Lake City Army Air Base Gunnery Range in World War II.

Originally part of the Salt Lake City Army Airfield, the 0.34acres site at "Salt Lake City Municipal Airport No. 1 (now Salt Lake City International Airport), on the corner of Second Street and E Street" was leased by the USAF from the Salt Lake City Corporation for the site. Equipment included tracking radar ("radar bomb scoring device") which mistakenly resulted in "a dropping of practice" bomb on one occasion,[4] and the 1960 Salt Lake B-58 crash occurred while on a bomb run tracked from the site.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19600425&id=JpseAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kMwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2763,4937058 Det 6 also provided technicians for the first SAC RBS Express train created in 1961 from "existing U.S. Army stock" at the nearby Ogden General Depot[5] (the Tooele Army Depot's[6] "Army Rail Shops" serviced the train).[7]

Designated FUDS J08UT092700, in May 2005 the site was part of the 135acres Utah Air National Guard installation.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: biography . title tbd . About May 1954 he was assigned to a semi-mobile Radar Bomb Scoring/Electronic Counter Measures Unit (SAC) at Phoenix, Arizona – in December 1954 that unit relocated to the municipal airport at Salt Lake City, Utah. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080513114634/http://howertonheritage.com/HowertonHeritageSummer2001.htm . 2008-05-13 .
  2. Web site: Spokane Daily Chronicle - Google News Archive Search. news.google.com.
  3. Book: Gwynn, J. Wallace. Great Salt Lake. 4 October 1980. Utah Geological Survey. Google Books. 9781557910837.
  4. Web site: Subscription . . 17 March 1950 . 24 . . 7 June 2023 . subscription . . en.
  5. News: 28 December 1961 . Bombers To Descend Near Alto Series of Mock Air Attacks . The Cherokeean . . 2012-07-09 . At the target area near Greenville, radar bomb scoring equipment mounted on an Air Force train.
  6. Web site: 5 August 2011 . The Tooele Army Depot . UtahRails.net . 2012-07-08.
  7. News: Livingood . Jay . Rail Bomb 'Scorer' Gets Overhaul At Hill Air Base . . 2012-07-08.