October 2026
In the early 1950s, the threat of attack by the Soviet Union on North America via the Arctic necessitated the construction of radar warning lines across the Canadian north. The Pinetree Line, the Mid-Canada Line and the Distant Early Warning Line, operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), provided advance warning of a Soviet attack in Canada.
The Americans also had their own radar warning lines, operated by the United States Air Force (USAF), in strategic locations throughout the American states.
An important part of the defence set-up were missile bases for launching NIKE surface to air missiles. These NIKE missile bases were also set up in strategic locations, usually rural areas, to intercept any threats detected, along with fighter-interceptors.
Advances in radar technology eventually enabled radars to increase their coverage areas, and radar stations in both Canada and America were slowly closed as other stations were able to cover their area of responsibility, with the majority ceasing operations from the 1960s to the 1990s. The NIKE bases were similarly deem unnecessary and shut down.
Some of the former stations were sold off and reproposed for civilian purposes, while others were abandoned and left to the elements. A small number of the former radar stations have been retained as unmanned radar for military and civilian purposes.
Below are a small selection of abandoned USAF radar and NIKE stations throughout the north-eastern United States:
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Brookfield Air Force Station
Brookfield Air Force Station was established it as a General Surveillance Radar station in April 1952. Brookfield AFS was one of several radar stations across America that were established in the early 1950s by Air Defense Command, re-named Aerospace Defense Command in 1958, as an early warning detection system against an attack by Soviet bombers.
Brookfield AFS had a brief life, closing on 1 Nov 1959, with a small section fenced-off for a small Gap-Filler radar tower and control building. The remainder of the property was turned over to Trumbull County, who established the Trumbull County Nursing Home Facility, using the former air force buildings.
The Gap-Filler radar remained in operation until June 1968, when it was shut down. Brookfield’s GATR site remained in operation until the early 1980s, when it too was closed and the site abandoned.
Around this time, the nursing home also closed and with no new tenants to take over the buildings, they were left vacant. The property was used occasionally for police training exercises.
The UFO sighting of 1994
On 14 December 1994, at around midnight, the Trumbull County 9-1-1 center logged several UFO reports from residents near the Sampson Road vicinity in Youngstown, south-west of Brookfield. Two weeks earlier, UFOs had also been reported in the area.
A low-flying object was seen and tracked by numerous police departments over a wide area, including Brookfield Police Department in Brookfield Township.
One Brookfield Police officer reported that he climbed atop the old Gap-Filler radar tower at the former Brookfield AFS to get a better view of the alleged UFO.
In the end, there was no official confirmation of what was actually spotted in the sky that night. It wasn’t the first time there were unconfirmed UFO sightings in this part of Ohio.
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Cleveland Nike Base
Opened in February 1957, the Bratenahl base, also known as U.S. Army Nike Missile Site CL-02, was established on the waterfront, east of downtown Cleveland in Westlake. The launcher area consisted of an underground storage for 20 Ajax missiles and 12 launchers, generator, acid-storage buildings, and a fueling area.
The control area, located half a mile to the east, consisted of a mess hall, administration building, barracks, radar tower, and control van.
Eighteen Hercules missiles replaced the Ajax missiles in November 1958. The development of intercontinental ballistic missiles by the Soviet Union decreased the value of the Nike aircraft air defense system, making the Nike bases obsolete. As a result, the number of Nike batteries were reduced beginning in 1965. The Bratenahl was de-activated in June 1971 and the launcher demolished in 1973.
Some of the buildings in the admin control area remain, now occupied by USG Corporation. The launch area was on the east end of the Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport property. Nothing remains today.
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Grand Island Nike Base
The Grand Island Nike Base in Niagara County, Grand Island, was a launcher and integrated fire control area for Nike-Ajax missiles during the 1950s and 1960s. The base opened in June 1955 and closed on 31 March 1970.
The integrated fire control area south of White Haven Road is presently known as “Town Nike Base Park”, and serves as a senior citizen center, while the launcher on Stanley Road and West River Parkway was converted into an ecological reserve.
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U.S. Army Nike Missile Site D-51
In 1956, the U.S. Army established a Nike missile site, designated D-51, adjacent to Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, armed with three Nike Ajax SAM missiles housed in underground silos, to defend the Detroit Sector. The army contingent received support from NAS Grosse Ile, who provided messes and housing facilities.
Nike site D-51 had a brief life, and the site was deactivated in 1963, prior to the introduction of the nuclear-armed Nike Hercules missiles.
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Lockport Air Force Station
Initially established at Fort Niagara in 1950 before relocating to Lockport site, the station fell under Air Defense Command. The station was a SAGE-equipped station, with its three radomes, equipped with one AN/FPS-7 radar and two AN/FPS-6 radars, was a part of the NORAD Regional Control Center located at Syracuse Air Force Station.
Lockport AFS also operated as a joint USAF and US Army station from 1951 to 1969.
The squadron was disbanded on 29 June 1979 and the station shut down. Today, the former station is partially abandoned. The radar towers and the GATR site were demolished, but most of the station’s other buildings remain, some abandoned and some repurposed. The barracks and the station HQ building have been converted into rental apartments, Cambria Commons and Unicorn Apartments, respectively. The former military housing are also now private residences.
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Syracuse Air Force Station
Syracuse Air Force Station came into being when the USAF returned to Hancock Field, a WWII Army Air Force training base in 1951, under Air Defence Command. The airfield had previously been turned over the New York Air National Guard, with 174th Fighter Wing being activated at Hancock Field on 28 October 1947, as the 138th Fighter Squadron.
The airfield itself became a joint military/civilian airport, re-named Clarence E. Hancock Airport, which officially opened to the public on 17 September 1949.
The USAF portion of the station was renamed Syracuse AFS on 1 December 1953, with 4624th Air Base Squadron activated as the host unit.
In 1958, a Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Data Center and Combat Center was established at Syracuse AFS.
In 1979, Aerospace Defense Command stood-down and Hancock Field was placed under control of Tactical Air Command. In the 1980s, both American and Canadian radar stations began shutting down as a part of the North American Air Defence Modernization Plan. The SAGE Data Center and the 21st AD were disbanded on 23 September 1983. The 21st North American Aerospace Defense Region re-located it’s Northeast Region Operations Control Center to Griffiss Air Force Base in New York State.
On 31 December 1983, active-duty Air Force use of Hancock Field ended, but both Army National Guard and Air Force National Guard remain at the station. The Army maintains a switching center had on the 3rd floor of the old SAGE DC/CC blockhouse, but it may face demolition in the near future to accommodate another runway.
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Benton Air Force Station
Benton Air Force Station opened on 21 September 1951 in Colley Township, Pennsylvania, operated by the 648th Aircraft Control Squadron. By 1963, the radars at the station were being used jointly by the Federal Aviation Administration for air traffic control of civilian aircraft.
Benton AFS was declared redundant and closed in 1975, but the FAA continues to use the radars as an auxiliary location for nearby Wilkes_Barre/Scranton International Airport.
The Red Rock Job Corps Center opened at the former air force station in 1978, utilizing the barracks and administrative buildings
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Ransomeville Nike Base
Ransomville Nike Base was operated by the USAF from 1954 to 1973, with a Test Annex that operated from 1958 to 1973.
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Willow Run Air Force Station
The U.S. Air Force also made a brief return in 1951, establishing the Willow Run Air Force Station. Becoming operational on 7 April 1952, the Willow Creek AFS served as the Headquarters of the 30th Air Division, under Air Defense Command, along with a Manual Air-Defense Control Center for tracking and control of aircraft in the defence of North America.
Willow Run AFS closed in April 1959, and the land used by the station was sold to the University of Michigan.
The former Air Force operations building and two smaller buildings remain and are used by the university, but all the other buildings have been demolished.
Additionally, the U.S. Air Force stationed the 472nd Reserve Fighter-Bomber Squadron at the Willow Run Airport, where they flew T-33 jet trainers and F-80 and F-84 jet fighter-bombers, from early 1956 until the squadron stood-down in the fall of 1957. The Willow Run detachment of the 2242nd Air Reserve Flying Center, which provided administrative and logistical operation of the 472nd, also stood down at the same time.
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Newport Nike Base
Opened in 1955, the base was built on the former Newport Naval Air Station (1942-1945), formerly an Auxiliary Landing Field for NAS Grosse Ile, south of Detroit.
The base was briefly used to house German prisoners of war (1945–1946) and later converted for use as a local high school (1947–1953).
The station was taken over by the US Army and initially armed with 1st-generation Nike-Ajax, housed in underground storage/launch magazines. The base facilities included thirty three buildings, including a mess hall, guard shack, theater building, sewage treatment plant, and barracks.
Unlike most Nike missile bases, Newport had two batteries, D-57 and D-58, equipped with 30 Ajax missiles and 12 missile launchers. Battery D-57 was deactivated in 1963, while D-58 was upgraded to nuclear-capable Nike-Hercules missiles, operated by the Michigan Army National Guard.
The base closed in 1974. Some of the abandoned former military buildings remain at the control site, along with the former military housing, but the former navy airfield is gone, replaced by a Ford Motor Company automotive parts distribution center in 2021.
The launch site has been completely redeveloped into a residential subdivision. The old barracks had previously been converted into condominiums after the base closed, but were demolished years ago.
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Sources: SAGE radar stations – Wikipedia, List of Nike missile sites – Wikipedia, NIKE MISSILE BASES | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University, Lockport Air Force Station – Wikipedia, Forts :: New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Centerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rock_Job_Corps_Center, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hancock_Field_Air_National_Guard_Base, nailhed: War is a Dish Best Served Cold.
