Bolafjall Radar Station (NATO ID: H-4) is an Icelandic General Surveillance Radar station and part of the

Iceland Air Defence System The Iceland Air Defence System ( is, Íslenska Loftvarnarkerfið) is a part of the Icelandic Coast Guard. It was founded in 1987 under the Radar Agency of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs after an agreement between Iceland and the Uni ...

. It is located atop on

Bolafjall Bolafjall is a 638 meter high mountainin the vicinity of Bolungarvík. A road was built to the top in 1986. In 2002 it was opened to civilian traffic. In 2022, an observation deck with a view over the Ísafjarðardjúp was opened on the mountain. ...

near the town of Bolungarvik. It is operated by the

Icelandic Coast Guard The Icelandic Coast Guard (, or simply ) is the Icelandic defence service responsible for search and rescue, maritime safety and security surveillance, and law enforcement in the seas surrounding Iceland. The Coast Guard maintains the Iceland ...

under the joint direction of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

as part of the

Icelandic Air Policing Icelandic Air Policing is a NATO operation conducted to patrol Iceland's airspace. As Iceland does not have an air force, in 2006 it requested that its NATO allies periodically deploy fighter aircraft to Keflavik Air Base to provide protection of ...

History

The station was established as a

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

(NATO) radar station in January 1992, with its construction cost paid by the NATO Infrastructure Fund. While the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

paid for its operational expenses, it was operated by

the Radar Agency The Radar Agency (Icelandic: ''Ratsjárstofnun'') was an Icelandic government agency that was under the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Iceland), Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It was founded in 1987 after the government of Iceland and the United Stat ...

(Icelandic: ''Ratsjárstofnun'') with civilian staff. The mission of the station was to intercept and shadow all Soviet aircraft in transit in and from the

GIUK gap The GIUK gap (sometimes written G-I-UK) is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval choke point. Its name is an acronym for ''Greenland, Iceland'', and the ''United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northe ...

which passed through the detection range of its radars and relay to the

NAS Keflavik Naval Air Station Keflavik (NASKEF) was a United States Navy station at Keflavík International Airport, Iceland, located on the Reykjanes peninsula on the south-west portion of the island. NASKEF was closed on 8 September 2006, and its facilitie ...

Radar Operations Control Center (ROCC). In 2006, the United States withdrew its military units from Iceland, leaving the radar station fully in Icelandic hands. In 2008, the Radar Agency was closed and its mission moved to the newly founded Icelandic Defence Agency (Varnarmálastofnun Íslands). Following the closure of the Icelandic Defence Agency, the operations where moved to the

References

{{Reflist

Notes

* 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. Radar stations of the United States Air Force in Iceland 1992 establishments in Iceland

History

See also

References

Notes