Le Figaro Lyon
For half a century its 22 meters of concrete and iron have dominated the Lyon metropolitan area.
Planted at the summit of Mount Verdun and its 626 meters of altitude, the
“
ball radar
”
of military base 942 has been part of the Rhone landscape since its installation in 1971. However, it is experiencing its last hours.
Technologically outdated, it will be dismantled from the spring.
Time to fine-tune the final settings on its successor, already in place since 2019 on neighboring Mount Thou.
The gleaming Grandmaster 406, barely hidden by the morning veil which dissipates above the fir trees, on this small massif of the Monts d'Or, will remain firmly attached to the horizon line.
This GM 406 produced by Thalès,
“it’s the Rolls-Royce of radars”
, smiles Colonel Rémy Païusco, commander for eight months of a base which has become one of the most important in France.
Enough to largely make its predecessor and its analog technology dating from the Cold War outdated.
“
The new equipment is more resilient
,” underlines Lieutenant-Colonel Sébastien.
IT makes maintenance easier for the ten or so specialized technicians, among the 1,400 soldiers and civilians working on the base.
“There is no need to change lamps that get too hot or worn transistors like on the 1971 radar
,” explains Chief Warrant Officer Anthony.
Repairs so frequent that the radars were installed in pairs, to remain operational during periods of work.
Moreover, the “ball radar”, also nicknamed
“23 centimeter radar”
by specialists for its wavelength, will be dismantled from the spring in order to allow the installation of an interim radar during maintenance operations. on the GM 406.
Cold War radar
At the foot of the “ball radar”, the engine room will still be humming for a few more weeks.
The ventilation is running at full speed to cool the three huge transmitters in the room lined with air conditioning.
The small-square tiling and the sea green paint peeling off the edges confirm the technological leap into the past.
And dive into the classic spy films.
When Russian planes were already arriving at the borders of French airspace.
The electromagnetic pulses sent by the three transmitters via the antenna located under the radar dome manage to detect aerial movements.
SGC MILLET Steve
“It’s part of their game which began during the Cold War and consists of showing what they are capable of while remaining within the limits of what is acceptable
,” says Colonel Rémy Païusco.
The aircraft were then indicated by small orange dots on the curved console of the 2D panoramic indicator.
The electromagnetic pulses, sent by the three transmitters via the antenna located under the radar dome, manage to detect aerial movements.
“The return wave makes it possible to calculate their speed and trajectory in order to define what we call a track
,” explains Chief Warrant Officer Anthony.
12,000 planes to monitor every day
Today, it is on a flat screen that the tracks of the 12,000 planes entering French airspace each day are shown.
Captured by around sixty radars which cover French territory, they are permanently viewed by the hundred operators dedicated to the buried command center.
They can query flight data when a plane catches their eye.
“These radars make it possible to monitor French airspace, the protection of which is ensured by the Air Force, through fighter plane patrols positioned in the four corners of France,”
explains Rémy Païusco, from his glass office. from which we can see the Alps.
Patrols which are able to take off at very short notice to intercept or remove doubt about an aircraft which has been deemed suspicious by our air traffic controllers.
And the colonel added:
“If there is a doubt, there is no doubt, we always take off our planes.
We prefer to take off a patrol to go near a plane that has not responded to the radio so that our pilot can visually see what is happening, remove any doubts and reassure everyone.
.
The Mont Verdun command center has neither plane nor runway, but benefits from the immediate responsiveness of bases throughout France.
In 2023, 300 alert takeoffs were required.
Without coercive maneuver for the most part.
Very often, these are pilots who forget to announce themselves on the radio.
There obviously remains the ultimate anguish of the hijacking of an airliner full of passengers heading towards Paris or strategic installations.
“This is what we are preparing for,”
the colonel continues.
22 meters high, the “23 centimeters” or “ball radar” has been visible throughout the Lyon metropolitan area for half a century.
SGC MILLET Steve
The missions of this 75-hectare base have evolved over 50 years.
Situated on a 19th century fort erected by the military engineer Séré de Rivières to protect Lyon from Prussian invasions, it benefits from countless buried galleries.
The latter aroused some fantasies, but also the interest of the air force, which established its National Air Operations Center (CNOA) there in 2007.
It is therefore from Mount Verdun that Air Force operations abroad are conducted and planned, under direct order of the army general staff.
“This fairly unique buried structure provides protection against a large number of threats,”
emphasizes Rémy Païusco.
Enough to explain the progression of this site, which, in addition to its half-century of existence, will celebrate this year the 160th anniversary of the buried fort.