The squadron is a geographically separated unit assigned to the 168th Wing at Eielson Air Force Base.

The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) site at Clear Air Force Station began operation in November 1961, when Detachment 1, 71st Surveillance Wing took over the site from Air Force Systems Command.

[2] In August 1967, a severe flood inundated the region surrounding Fairbanks, Alaska, and the squadron provided shelter to 216 refugees.

Because of a fire that destroyed part of a similar facility at Thule Air Base, Greenland, in 1981 the missile tracking radar and its radome were disassembled and replaced.

In 1998 the radar began to be converted to a phased array radar by employing components of the PAVE PAWS submarine-launched ballistic missile detection site from the closed facility at Eldorado Air Force Station near Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.