NSGA Northwest AN/FRD-10 HF/DF Array

USA / Virginia / Chesapeake /
 military, antenna, abandoned / shut down
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Once a major espionage facility and listening post run by the Navy on behalf of the NSA. The two large rings were part of the AN/FRD-10 HF/DF CDDA, or Circularly Diposed Dipole Array, used for years to eavesdrop upon, and then to direction find HF communications. The facilities were active Oct 1953-30 Sep 2001.

There were sixteen AN/FRD-10 high-frequency direction-finding arrays built by the United States and Canada during the 1960s and 1970s. These sixteen stations, along with a number of Pusher HF/DF arrays, comprised the US Naval Security Group's BULLSEYE HFDF net. Pushers was simply the name given to simpler CDAAs.

The arrays operated in the range of 2 to 32 MHz. Their function was to detect, monitor, and plot the location of Soviet submarines and other radio emitters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The largest array was some 260 m in diameter, 36 m high, and sat on a ground plane of 390 m diameter, with a two storey building at its centre, housing the main equipment and operators.


luxexumbra.blogspot.com/2005/06/frd-10-endangered-speci...
www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/classic_bullseye....
www.navycthistory.com/northwest_va_intro.html
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wullenweber
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Coordinates:   36°32'58"N   76°15'29"W

Comments

  • CDDA torn down in 1990's. NSGA Northwest decommissioned about the same time. No listening capabilities here any more, just old office space. Building now houses Navy Center for Antiterrorism Training and USCG Maritime Security Response Team. The "BullsEye" still sticks out like a sore thumb from the air. Gravel circle surrounding building still has ground plane wires causing trip hazards. Anyone walking across it during darkness does so at their own risk!
This article was last modified 16 years ago