Canadian Forces Station Sydney, also known as CFS Sydney, is a former

Canadian Forces Station A Canadian Forces base or CFB (french: links=no, base des Forces canadiennes, BFC) is a military installation of the Canadian Armed Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces base, it must station one or more major units (e.g., army r ...

located in the community of Lingan Road,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. It was operational as a

Pinetree Line The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North Ame ...

radar station from April 1954 to January 1991. For Information on the World War II, RCAF Aerodrome located near Sydney, Nova Scotia please see Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport

RCAF Station Sydney

The

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

constructed RCAF Station Sydney in Lingan Road along the northwest municipal boundary of the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

, opening in April 1954 as part of the

network of radar stations. The location of the station on a low ridge along the eastern shore of Sydney Harbour provided coverage of a large portion of the

Cabot Strait Cabot Strait (; french: détroit de Cabot, ) is a strait in eastern Canada approximately 110 kilometres wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint L ...

and the south coast of Newfoundland to complement USAF operated Pinetree Line stations at Stephenville, Gander and St. John's to the northeast. Sydney's coverage was backed up by

RCAF Station Beaverbank RCAF Station Beaver Bank was a long-range Pinetree Line early warning radar station operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force, located in central Nova Scotia near the community of Beaver Bank. The site is now known as Beaver Bank Villa. Base hist ...

and RCAF Station Barrington to the southwest and RCAF Station St. Margarets to the west. Using the radio callsign "PEPPER", the Sydney station consisted of a

radome A radome (a portmanteau of radar and dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal antenna e ...

housing the early warning and ground control intercept radars, as well as supporting buildings including residences for personnel. The primary lodger unit established at the station was No. 221 Aircraft Warning Squadron; this unit formed at Sydney on August 1, 1953, while the station was under construction. Search radars installed included models FPS-3, FPS-27, and FPS-508. No. 221 Squadron was operationally controlled by Sector Commander 2 ADCC,

RCAF Station Chatham Canadian Forces Base Chatham or CFB Chatham was a Canadian Forces Base located immediately south of the town of Chatham, New Brunswick, Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada. Parts are now operating as Miramichi Airport, Miramichi Municipal Airport sin ...

. The RCAF air base at Chatham and the USAF's Ernest Harmon AFB in Stephenville were the nearest bases for interceptor aircraft that would respond to anything detected by the Sydney main radar. Following the 1958 partnership between the USAF and RCAF to form the

North American Aerospace Defence Command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

or NORAD, many Pinetree Line radar stations were upgraded for automation and consolidation of intercept data. Consequently, RCAF Station Sydney's radar equipment underwent an upgrade in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the operational implementation of the

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...

(SAGE) System on September 15, 1962. Under SAGE, the Sydney station collected, discriminated and transmitted its radar coverage data to the designated SAGE Control Centre in the Bangor NORAD section at Topsham AFS.

CFS Sydney

On February 1, 1968, the RCAF merged with the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submar ...

(RCN) and the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...

to form the Canadian Armed Forces. As part of the unification, RCAF Station Sydney was renamed to Canadian Forces Station Sydney, or CFS Sydney. The end of the Cold War and obsolescence of the Pinetree Line radar stations saw CFS Sydney's radar cease operations on January 17, 1991. The station was decommissioned by the Canadian Forces in 1992 whereby the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

transferred the property to the Government of Nova Scotia. It was subsequently transferred to the Municipality of the County of Cape Breton which established a non-profit development company named New Dawn Enterprises Ltd. to market the buildings and residences for civilian use. New Dawn Enterprises Ltd. saw limited success in seeing alternative uses for the facility, partly due to the economic decline of the

Industrial Cape Breton Industrial Cape Breton is a geographic region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It refers to the eastern portion of Cape Breton County fronting the Atlantic Ocean on the southeastern part of Cape Breton Island. Geography The area comprisi ...

region. In 2004 it was discovered that an above-ground fuel storage tank at the former CFS Sydney site was leaking. A subsequent investigation by the Department of National Defence identified 35 other underground fuel storage tanks on the property, some of which were also leaking. These tanks had not been revealed at the time of the facility's transfer in 1992. DND has committed to cleaning up the site and remediating any resulting soil contamination.

Canadian Coastal Radar

The main radar operations building of CFS Sydney was repurposed for one of three East Coast Canadian Coastal Radar (CCR) sites and still stands today. The one remaining system is operating, an

RCAF The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

operated, minimally attended AN/FPS-117, and commits radar information to NORAD. The rest of the site was torn down, and is currently being cleaned. A welding school, retirement home,

Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

club, CBRM water storage and civilian homes still stand.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sydney Canadian Forces bases in Nova Scotia Canadian Forces bases in Canada (closed) Royal Canadian Air Force stations Buildings and structures in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality