West Mesa Air Force Station

 (1956-1968) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1956 near Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico. Named West Mesa Air Force Station after the location. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of M-94, later a Sage ID of Z-94. Transferred to the FAA in 1968 and now known as West Mesa FAA Radar Site.

History
Established in 1956 and became operational on 22 Jun 1956 as West Mesa Air Force Station manned by the 687th AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning mission. The early warning mission involved tracking and identifying all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission involved guiding Air Force interceptors to any identified enemy aircraft. Controllers at the station vectored fighter aircraft at the correct course and speed to intercept enemy aircraft using voice commands via ground-to-air radio.

West Mesa Air Force Station served as a Master Direction Center as a part of the integrated air defense system. The 687th AC&W Squadron maintained operational control over the 767th, 768th and the 769th AC&W squadrons.

Initial equipment included the mobile MPS-7 search radar and mobile MPS-14 height-finder radar. The search radar was upgraded to fixed FPS-20A about 1961 and to an FPS-91A around 1966.

Gap Fillers
West Mesa AFS was responsible for the maintenance of one remote unattended gap-filler radar site. Gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites sent digitized radar target data directly to a direction center. Maintenance teams were dispatched from West Mesa AFS for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators suggested the site had problems. The West Mesa AFS gap-filler radar was located at Zuni, NM.

Closure
West Mesa AFS became a BUIC I GCI site in 1962. West Mesa AFS and the 687th AC&W Radar Squadron were deactivated on 8 Sep 1968 and a portion of the site was transferred to the FAA.

West Mesa FAA Radar Site
With the closure of West Mesa AFS in 1968 a small compound including the search radar tower was transferred to the FAA and became known as the West Mesa FAA Radar Site (ZQSA) connected to the Albuquerque ARTCC (ZAB). Also known as Albuquerque FAA Radar Site.

By 1990 the site was equipped with an FPS-66A search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The West Mesa CD-2 was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing in July 1992.

CARSR Radar
At the time of the CARSR changeout, the legacy radar in place was an FPS-66A and the CARSR conversion included a 1561 Antenna.

Physical Plant
The physical plant of the site was divided into the main site, a cantonment area, a housing area, and a radio site. The main site housed the operations buildings, the radar towers, and the backup generators. The cantonment area housed the enlisted barracks, the bachelor officer's quarters, the orderly room, the dining hall, the motor pool, and other support buildings. Apart from the main site was a small 27 unit housing area for critical married personnel built in 1959. A separate Ground to Air Transmitter/Receiver (GATR) radio site housed the radio equipment for directing aircraft intercepts.

Current Status
FAA maintains 4.37-acre compound that includes most of the former main site and cantonment area. Most of the cantonment buildings appear to have been removed. The housing area was sold off to private owners who still maintain the property.

See Also:
 * Albuquerque ARTCC
 * SAGE System
 * BUIC System
 * JSS System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets

Sources:
 * , page 99.
 * , page 140.

Links:
 * Radomes - West Mesa Air Force Station
 * Wikipedia - West Mesa Air Force Station