Oklahoma City Air Force Station | |
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Part of Air Force Materiel Command | |
1995 airphoto
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Location of Oklahoma City AFS, Oklahoma
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Coordinates | 35°24′12″N 097°21′28″W / 35.40333°N 97.35778°WCoordinates: 35°24′12″N 097°21′28″W / 35.40333°N 97.35778°W |
Type | United States Air Force Station (Cold War) |
Site information | |
Controlled by | United States Air Force |
Site history | |
Built | 1942 |
In use | 1951-1968 |
Oklahoma City Air Force Station (ADC ID: P-52, NORAD-ID: Z-52) is a closed Cold War United States Air Force air defense and communications-electronics headquarters and radar station. It was located 10 miles (16 km) east-southeast of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, just to the southeast of Tinker Air Force Base. It ceased to be a separate Air Force installation on 1 October 1983, when it merged with Tinker.
In late 1951 Air Defense Command selected the station as a site for one of twenty-eight radar stations built as part of the second segment of the permanent radar surveillance 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 second segment of the permanent network. Receiving the Defense Secretary’s approval on July 21, the Air Force exercised a right of return to the former World War II airfield and directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with construction.
On 1 May 1951 the 746th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned to the new Oklahoma City Air Force Station by the 33d Air Division at nearby Tinker AFB. The squadron began operating a pair of AN/FPS-10 radars from this site in May 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 scopes. The 746th AC&WS added an AN/FPS-6 height-finder radar in 1958. The AN/FPS-l0’s were phased out, with the last one being removed in 1962.