Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site

The Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site (callsign Badlands Bomb Plot) opened in August 1960 on Hurley Butte (43.71985°N, -102.14294°W) adjacent to the Pine Ridge Reservation and a few miles from Interior, South Dakota to replace the Los Angeles Bomb Plot at Cheli AFS. Operated and maintained by Detachment 2 of the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron (initially by temporary duty personnel), the RBS site was 1 of ~14 that remained after the 1965-6 deployment of RBS site personnel for Vietnam Combat Skyspot. Family housing for the detachment "was on the western edge of Wall", a nearby town, and barracks initially used for the station were shared by Boeing facility contractors for the Ellsworth Air Force Base 850th SMS's HGM-25A Titan I ICBMs. Concrete pads at Hurley Butte remain from when the RBS equipment and personnel transferred to Holbrook, Arizona (1968-1993, merged w/ Det 19 Poplar MT to move to Det 4 Harrison AR). At the end of the Cold War, numerous nearby radar sites for RBS and electronic warfare simulation included those at the Alzada (2 sites), Ekalaka, & Hulett Mini-Mutes Radar Sites, the Clark & Colony Radar Bomb Scoring Sites, and the "Ellsworth Air Force Base" sites (Belle Fourche, Colmer, & Horman Radar Bomb Scoring Sites and the Antelope Butte Mini Mute Radar Bomb Scoring Site).

The Interior Family Housing Site, a "detached installation" of Barksdale Air Force Base provided homes from 26 Jun 1968-30 Apr 1969. Det 2 moved to the Holbrook Bomb Plot in Arizona in 1968 and the Interior RBSS is a Formerly Used Defense Site within the