After the Soviet Union's detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, tensions mounted between the United States and the USSR, and to prevent a surprise attack the US Air Force established a radar network to protect American air space. Located about thirty miles northwest of here, the Havre Air Force Station was one of eight radar stations in Montana. Established in 1952, it was home to the 778th (AC&W Aircraft Control & Warning) Squadron, whose four radars tracked both friendly and enemy aircraft and fed data to the control center at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. In the event of a Soviet sneak attack, the station relayed information to Malmstrom, which would direct fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles to intercept the invaders. With the advent of nuclear warhead-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in the 1960s, the radar stations soon became obsolete. The Havre Air Force Station then functioned as a component of the BUIS II and III system as a backup in case the Malmstrom direction center was rendered inoperative. The Air Force closed the Havre radar station in 1979, and for a few years it served as a NORAD electronic bomb scoring site before closing permanently in 1986.