Thomasville Air Force Station

Thomasville Air Force Station
Part of Air Defense Command (ADC)
Thomasville, Alabama
Thomasville AFS Location of Thomasville AFS, Alabama
Coordinates	31°56′14″N 087°45′03″W / 31.93722°N 87.75083°W / 31.93722; -87.75083 (Thomasville AFS TM-197)Coordinates: 31°56′14″N 087°45′03″W / 31.93722°N 87.75083°W / 31.93722; -87.75083 (Thomasville AFS TM-197)
Type	Long Range Radar Site
Site information
Owner	National Park Service
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	1959
Built by	U.S. Air Force
In use	1959-1969
Garrison information
Garrison	Thomasville, Alabama

Thomasville Air Force Station (ADC ID: TM-197, NORAD ID: Z-197) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 1.9 miles (3.1 km) north-northwest of Thomasville, Alabama. It was closed in 1969.

Thomasville Air Force Station came into existence as part of Phase III of the Air Defense Command Mobile Radar program. On October 20, 1953 ADC requested a third phase of twenty-five radar sites be constructed.

The 698th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron moved to Thomasville on 1 September 1958 when a test model of the AN/FPS-35 radar was installed for evaluation. It was the first of the large radars to be deployed, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. Two AN/FPS-90 height-finder radars were added in the early 1960s.

The Ground Air Transmitting Receiving (GATR) Site for communications was located at 31°56′27″N 087°44′18″W / 31.94083°N 87.73833°W / 31.94083; -87.73833 (Thomasville AS GATR), approximately 0.8 miles east-northeast from the main site. Normally the GATR site was connected by a pair of buried telephone cables, with a backup connection of dual telephone cables overhead. The Coordinate Data Transmitting Set (CDTS) (AN/FST-2) at the main site converted each radar return into a digital word which was transmitted by the GATR via microwave to the Control Center.

In 1959, Thomasville joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to DC-09 at Gunter AFB, Alabama. After joining, the squadron was redesignated as the 698th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 October. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-97.