Murphy Dome AFS was a continental defense radar station constructed to provide the United States Air Force early warning of an attack by the Soviet Union on Alaska.

It was one of the ten original aircraft control and warning sites constructed during the early 1950s to establish a permanent air defense system in Alaska.

Murphy Dome was initially operated by a detachment of the 532nd Aircraft Control and Warning Group, Ladd AFB (now Fort Wainwright).

As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft at Ladd AFB toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes.

Two other buildings contained living quarters, work areas, and recreational facilities plus opportunities for such sports as skiing, skating, pool tables, horseshoes, and basketball.

As an MCC site, its mission was to feed air defense data to the Alaskan Control Center at Elmendorf AFB where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile.

It was inactivated in 1979, and replaced by an Alascom owned and operated satellite earth terminal as part of an Air Force plan to divest itself of the obsolete White Alice Communications System and transfer the responsibility to a commercial firm.

The USAF shared its radars with the United States Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) for Nike missile-defense system (Fairbanks Defense Area).

It was designed to transmit aircraft tracking data via satellite to the Alaskan NORAD Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Elmendorf AFB.

In 1998 Pacific Air Forces initiated "Operation Clean Sweep", in which abandoned Cold War stations in Alaska were remediated and the land restored to its previous state.