CFS Shelburne

rdf:langString CFS Shelburne

rdf:langString Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Shelburne is a former Canadian Forces Station that was a shore terminus for the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) from 1955 to 1994. It was located in the Municipality of the District of Shelburne, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia. The system, its name and purpose of the shore stations, in which output of the array at sea was processed and displayed by means of the Low Frequency Analyzer and Recorder (LOFAR), was classified until 1991 with "oceanographic research" given as the cover for the actual purpose of undersea surveillance. The shore stations were given the generic and vague name of Naval Facility (NAVFAC). The Canadian facilities were officially given other names reflecting joint Canadian forces and United States Navy operation but within U.S. Navy terminology may sometimes be seen as Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Shelbourne and Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Argentia, the other Canadian Atlantic SOSUS shore terminal. The SOSUS facility opened in 1955 during the Cold War adjacent to and including a part of what had been a World War II installation, HMCS Shelburne. That original installation was located on the eastern shore of Shelburne Harbour in the community of Sandy Point, immediately south of the boundary for the town of Shelburne and included a deepwater port and shore facilities including barracks and residences. That installation closed in 1946 becoming an industrial park. The Cold War SOSUS shore terminal included some of the old installation and land located in the community of Lower Sandy Point, approximately 14 km (8.7 mi) south of the town of Shelburne, on Government Point at the southern tip of a peninsula separating Shelburne Harbour from Jordan Bay. The Shelurne facility was one of the first phase SOSUS systems. The original order for six Atlantic systems in 1952 was expanded in 1954 to three more Atlantic systems for a total of nine and six more on the Pacific coast of the United States with one in Hawaii. A prototype array at Eleuthera, Bahamas had been joined by operational Naval Facilities at Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico, Grand Turk, and San Salvador, Bahamas in 1954. The 1955 installations included Shelburne and Naval Facilities Bermuda, Nantucket and at Cape May, New Jersey. When decommissioned August 1, 1994 it was the oldest facility as the other original and later individual shore facilities had been consolidated or shut down. The closed facility was put to civilian uses in 1995.