Straumnes Air Station

{{Short description|Former radar station in Iceland}} {{Infobox military installation | name=Latrar Air Station | ensign=60px 65px | partof=Air Forces Iceland | location= | image= Busted (47027745702).jpg | caption= | pushpin_map= Iceland | pushpin_label=Latrar AS | pushpin_mapsize=300 | pushpin_map_caption=Location of Latrar Air Station | coordinates={{Coord|66|25|49|N|023|05|34|W|name=Latrar AS H-4|display=inline,title}} | type=Air Force Station | code= | height= | ownership= | controlledby={{air force|USA}} | condition=abandoned | built=1953–1956 | builder= | used=1956–1960 }}

'''Latrar Air Station (ADC/NATO ID: H-4)''', also known as '''Straumnes Air Station''',<ref name="wf-2006">{{cite news |author1=Matthew Bradley |title=Former 934th Air Control Squadron Airmen visit former duty station |url=https://timarit.is/page/5836949 |access-date=28 July 2022 |work=White Falcon |date=20 July 2006 |page=1 |via=Tímarit.is}} {{open access}}</ref> is a former United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station built in 1953-1956, located at the top of Mount Straumnes and in the former village of Látrar in the bay of Aðalvík, on the sparsely inhabited Hornstrandir peninsula. The station was closed in 1960 and has since been left to the elements.<ref name="ruv-oljost">{{cite news |author1=Brynjólfur Þór Guðmundsson |title=Óljóst hver á húsarústir á Straumnesfjalli |url=https://www.ruv.is/frett/oljost-hver-a-husarustir-a-straumnesfjalli |access-date=26 July 2022 |work=RÚV |date=15 August 2018 |language=Icelandic}}</ref>

The site was operated by the 934th Aircraft Control and Warning (later Air Defense, Later Air Control) Squadron,<ref name="wf-2006" /> and was equipped with AN/FPS-3, AN/FPS-8 and AN/FPS-4 radars.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

The Bolafjall (H-4) radar station, located approximately 30 km (18 mi) south of the Straumnes site was established in 1992 as part of the Iceland Air Defence System.

==History== Construction of the air station started in 1953 and it started operations in 1956. After only being in operation for four years, a decision was made to close the site in 1960 due to high operation costs and the last air force and civilian staff left the following year.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Friðþór Kr. Eydal |title=Ratsjárstöðvar í Aðalvík |url=https://timarit.is/page/1747736 |access-date=26 July 2022 |work=Morgunblaðið |date=26 July 1991 |pages=14–15 |language=Icelandic |via=Tímarit.is}} {{open access}}</ref> In 1962, the Icelandic government took over ownership of the remaining buildings.<ref>{{cite news |title=Óljóst hver á rústir herstöðvar |url=https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2018/08/15/oljost_hver_a_rustir_herstodvar/ |access-date=26 July 2022 |work=Morgunblaðið |date=15 August 2018 |language=Icelandic}}</ref>

The Greenland, Iceland and United Kingdom air defense sector, better known as the GIUK gap, was routinely utilized by the Soviet Union's long-range heavy bombers and maritime reconnaissance platforms as a transit point towards the Atlantic Ocean. From bases located at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, Soviet aircraft would stream down to the North Cape in Norway towards the Gap which was use as a doorway to the vast Atlantic. Most of the Soviet missions were destined to probe United States’ air defense along the North Atlantic and after 1960 in the Caribbean where Cuba, the USSR's most important satellite state outside continental Europe, was located. Such was the perceived threat from the Soviet incursions that it became a priority for NATO to demonstrate to that the strategic Giuk passage would be monitored at all times.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

The mission of the station was to intercept and shadow all Soviet aircraft in transit in and from the Gap which passed through the detection range of its radars and pass the information to interceptor aircraft deployed at Keflavik Airfield.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

The site was inaccessible except by sealift using a small pier usable only during a limited part of the summer season. The site was never equipped with tropospheric scatter communications (as H-1, H-2 and H-3 had been equipped) and relied on HF communications which were inadequate. The station was closed in 1960 as a result of high costs, inadequacy and redundancy.

After the site was closed, the facility lay abandoned. The buildings are difficult to reach and remain in a deteriorating condition, most without windows, abandoned to the elements.<ref name="ruv-oljost" /> In 1991, a major cleaning operation was performed at the site, involving the Icelandic Defence Force and local SAR units.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Trausti Ólafsson |title=Björgunarsveitir við Djúp afla sér tekna með hreinsuninni |url=https://timarit.is/page/1747591 |access-date=3 August 2022 |work=Morgunblaðið |date=23 July 1991 |page=21 |language=Icelandic |via=Tímarit.is}} {{open access}}</ref> The site remains a popular hiking destination.<ref name="ruv-oljost" />

In the 1990s the Iceland Air Defence System was being established, and a location closer to transport links and population centres was chosen, and therefore a new H-4 was established at Bolafjall (H-4), near Bolugnarvík.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946–1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado * Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command. * [http://www.radomes.org/cgi-bin/museum/acwinfo2x.cgi?site=%22Straumnes+AS,+IS%22&key=StraumnesASIS&pic=StraumnesASIS&doc=StraumnesASIS Information for Straumnes AS, IS]

Category:Radar stations of the United States Air Force in Iceland Category:Westfjords Category:Military installations established in 1956 Category:Military installations closed in 1960