Air Force Looking at Adding Big Radar Defense Station in SE Oregon

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public input on a US Air Force proposal to build a new early-warning radar facility in SE Oregon.

  The new station would be in Malheur County

The USAF proposal is for a 5,000 acre layout near Fields, OR. It's about 60 miles west of the Idaho border and just north of the border with California.

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It would transfer 5,000 acres of public land to the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Air Force. According to BLM:

"If approved, the Air Force could construct, operate, and maintain a homeland defense over the horizon radar system referred to as the Whitehorse Ranch Project."

Public comments can be made, and information about a two-year withdrawal of the land needed to develop the projects by clicking here. 

Over The Horizon Radar uses radio waves that bounce off the edge of the atmosphere, or ionisphere, to detect objects that are beyond visual reach, due to the curve of the earth.  (Image courtesy of airandspaceforces.com online) This image shows how it works. The blue represents the radar beams reaching over the horizon.