The Havre Air Force Station

After the Soviet Union’s detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, tensions mounted between the United States and the USSR. To prevent a surprise communist attack, the US Air Force established a radar network to protect American air space. Using the most sophisticated computer and radar technology available, dedicated Air Force officers and airmen manned the stations in some of the most isolated places in the country. Located about thirty miles northwest of here, the Havre Air Force Station was one of eight radar stations in Montana. Established in 1952, it was the home of the 778th AW&C (Aircraft Warning & Control) Squadron. The station’s four radars tracked both friendly and enemy aircraft, feeding the data to the control center at Malmstrom Air Force Base at Great Falls. In the event of a Soviet sneak attack, the station relayed information to Malmstrom, which would direct fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles to intercept the invaders. With the advent of nuclear warhead-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in the 1960s, the radar stations soon became obsolete. The Havre Air Force station then functioned as a component of the BUIC II and III system that functioned as a backup in case the Malmstrom direction center was rendered inoperative. The Air Force closed the Havre radar station in 1979. For a few years it served as a NORAD electronic bomb scoring site before closing permanently in 1986.