Omaha Air Force Station (ADC ID: P-71, NORAD ID: Z-71) is a closed

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

General Surveillance Radar station. It is located north of

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. It was closed in 1968.

History

Omaha Air Force Station was one of twenty-eight stations built as part of the second segment of the Air Defense Command permanent radar network. Prompted by the start of the Korean War, on July 11, 1950, the Secretary of the Air Force asked the Secretary of Defense for approval to expedite construction of the permanent network. Receiving the Defense Secretary's approval on July 21, the Air Force directed the Corps of Engineers to proceed with construction. The 789th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was activated at the station on 1 May 1951. The squadron first operated an AN/CPS-4 and AN/FPS-3 radar at Omaha in April 1952, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar. Eventually the Air Force replaced the height-finder radar with an AN/FPS-6, and replaced the AN/FPS-3 search radar with an AN/FPS-20. In late 1959 this station was also performing air traffic control duties for the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

. An Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) was established at Omaha AFS in 1959 for Nike missile command-and-control functions as part of the

Offutt AFB Defense Area The following is a list of Nike missile sites operated by the United States Army. This article lists sites in the United States, most responsible to Army Air Defense Command; however, the Army also deployed Nike missiles to Europe as part of the ...

. The site was equipped with the AN/GSG-5(V) BIRDIE solid-state computer system. The Army Nike radars were fully integrated with the Air Force sets. Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) operations began in 1961, initially feeding data to DC-08 at Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri. After joining, the squadron was redesignated as the 789th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 January 1962. The radar squadron provided information 24x7 to the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. A second height-finder radar (AN/FPS-6A) was installed in 1962. On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-71. In addition to the main facility, Omaha AFS operated one AN/FPS-18 "Gap Filler" site: * Dallas Center AFS, IA (P-71D) Dallas Center was taken over in 1957 after its closure as M-122. It was operated until its final closure in December 1967. In 1964 the AN/FPS-20A radar was upgraded to become an

AN/FPS-66 The AN/FPS-20 was a widely used L band early warning and ground-controlled interception radar system employed by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command, the NORAD Pinetree Line in Canada, the USAF CONAD in the continental United States, ...

, then updated again to an AN/FPS-66A in 1967. The 789th Radar Squadron (SAGE) was inactivated 8 September 1968, and the search radar was transferred to the FAA. Omaha AFS is an FAA site, using the Air Force AN/FPS-66A radar as part of the NAS Defense Program until February 2014. The FPS was decommissioned at that time, and replaced by the Common Air Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR).

Air Force units and assignments

Units

* Constituted as the 789th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron : Activated on 1 May 1951 : Redesignated as 789th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 January 1962 : Discontinued and inactivated on 8 September 1968

Assignments

543d Aircraft Control and Warning Group The 543d Aircraft Control and Warning Group is a disbanded United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 31st Air Division, Air Defense Command, stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. It was inactivated on 10 February 1952. History ...

, 1 May 1951 *

31st Air Division The 31st Air Division (31st AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command, assigned to Tenth Air Force, being stationed at Sioux City Municipal Airport, Iowa. It was inactivated on 31 ...

, 6 February 1952 *

20th Air Division The 20th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Tactical Air Command at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida where it was inactivated on 1 March 1983. During most of the division's history it ...

, 1 March 1956 * Kansas City Air Defense Sector, 1 July 1961 *

30th Air Division The 30th Air Division (30th AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command, assigned to Tenth Air Force, being stationed at Sioux City Municipal Airport, Iowa. It was inactivated on ...

, 1 April 1966 – 8 September 1968

References

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External links