Latrar Air Traffic Control Radar

 radar station, air traffic control tower, former air force base, early warning radar

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Built in 1992 atop the peak of Bolafjall mountain the present-day ATC Radar system at Latrar started its life as a long-range General Surveillance Radar Station equipped with an AN/FPS-117 radar system and operated by the 932d Air Control Squadron of the US Air Force under direction of NATO. Assuming the airspace monitoring mission of the previous radar suite at the Straumnes Air Station which had gone offline in 1960, the radar monitored the airspace over the Western Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) Gap for fourteen years, relaying any target information to the Keflavik NAS Radar Operations Control Center (ROCC).

Idled from its military role by the withdrawal of US Armed Forces from Iceland in 2006, the station was transferred to the Government of Iceland who are presently utilizing the radar for civilian/commercial air traffic control purposes.

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