Former COB-Main/A-08 DEW Line Radar Site, Cold Bay AFS

 military, tropospheric scatter station, former air force base, early warning radar

 Upload a photo

Established in 1958 as a co-located White Alice Communications and DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line site in 1958, the COB-Main or Cold Bay radar site operated as a long-range radar site and control station for the five other COB Sector radar stations under its command. Serving as both the primary communications hub for its sector stations and SAC personnel at Fire Island Air Force Station, COB-Main also functioned as a logistical hub for the COB Sector and utilized the nearby airfield at Cold Bay Airport as a staging and distribution area for both men and materials heading to outlying stations.

Staffed by approximately 45 USAF personnel of the 714th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron during its peak periods of operation, COB-Main remained active in the DEW Line through September of 1969 when it was officially converted to a Air Control & Warning Site as part of the Alaska Radar System following the termination of DEW operations. Continuing to serve as both a long-range radar site and logistical hub for its still-operational stations, the station was gradually automated and its assigned USAF compliment reduced through the 1970 and into the 1980's when its primary AN/FPS-3, AN/FPS-20A, and AN/FPS-6(-90) radar systems was deemed obsolete. Officially terminating operations in November of 1983, the COB-M site was stripped of sensitive or reusable materials and essentially abandoned to the elements, its radar tracking operations assumed by an automated station constructed approximately 2 miles Southeast of its location.

Remaining derelict for the next two decades in an extremely limited "caretaker" status, the former DEW Line site and former Air Force Base was razed, removed and its land remediated in the early 2000's as part of the US Air Force's "Operation Clean Sweep" by the 611th Civil Engineering Squadron. With the project declared complete in 2005, today the only structure remaining of the former COB-Main station is a small quonset hut used by the population for storage.

lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/cobm/
www.radomes.org/museum/showsite.php?site=Cold+Bay+DEW%2...
www.radomes.org/museum/showsite.php?site=Cold+Bay+AFS%2...