Louis Blotner Radar Bomb Scoring Site

The Louis Blotner Radar Bomb Scoring Site and the subsequent Ashland Radar Station were an 1963 June -1990 Strategic Air Command AUTOTRACK radar site(s) operated by Detachment 7 of the 12th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron. The station simulated Electronic Countermeasures for the Ashland Training Range's low-level training route "over Bangor north to Houlton", Maine (designated route "IR-800" by 1981). Constructed at a 1957 NIKE battery control area (radar site) which had been conveyed to Blotner Trailer Sales in 1962, the SAC radar station was initially a mobile site with temporarily-emplaced systems. In 1975 the site was planned to become permanent, but instead groundbreaking in June 1979 was for a nearby radar station.

Detachment 7 moved southwest to the new Ashland Radar Station south of Ashland, Maine. The Ashland Strategic Training Range eventually included an AN/MPS-T1 and Multiple Threat Emitter System (MUTES) and in 1985, Det 7 was awarded the Combat Skyspot trophy.

The "Blotner Site" was subsequently used for Louis Blotner Communications Facility No. 1 of Det 2, 1000 SOG in 1987-1993, and the enlisted men's barracks operated as a general store in August 1992. In 1996 the former Ashland site was planned for civilian transfer.