Oakdale Air Force Station

 (1959-1969) - A Cold War Air Force Station moved from Brookfield Air Force Station, Ohio. Co-Located with U.S. Army radar site for Nike missile-defense system & Missile Master Direction Center Oakdale Army Air Defense Command Post PI-70DC at Oakdale, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of RP-62, later a Sage ID of Z-62. Turned over to the FAA in 1969, now Oakdale FAA Radar Site with an FAA ID of PIT, also known as Pittsburgh FAA Radar Site.

History of Oakdale Air Force Station
Established in 1959 and became operational in 1959 as Oakdale Air Force Station manned by the 662nd Radar Squadron (SAGE). Radar data was shared between the FAA for Air Traffic Control purposes, with the adjacent U.S. Army NIKE Missile Master site, Oakdale Army Air Defense Command Post PI-70DC, for the NIKE Pittsburgh Defense Area and with the U.S. Air Force for the SAGE System air defense system.

Initial equipment included the ARSR-1 FAA search radar and two FPS-6B height-finder radars. This configuration met the requirements for the transition to the SAGE System operation.

SAGE System Operation


The site began operation as a SAGE site in 1961 initially feeding the Hancock SAGE Direction Center DC-03.

The search radar was upgraded to one FPS-20 in 1962. In 1963, a FPS-24 search radar was installed along with one FPS-26A height-finder and one FPS-90 height-finder. Also in place during part of this time were two U.S. Army FPS-6 height-finders. The FAA maintained the search radars with Air Force personnel maintaining the two USAF height-finders and U.S. Army personnel maintained the Army height-finders.

Gap Fillers
Oakdale AFS was responsible for the maintenance of four remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The Oakdale AFS gap-filler radars were located at Thompson, Lewisville, and Brookfield, Ohio. The fourth site was located at Thomas, West Virginia.

Closure
Oakdale AFS and the 662nd were deactivated on 31 Dec 1969. The operations area of the radar site was transferred to the FAA. The U.S. Army, Army Air-Defense Command Post (AADCP) PI-70DC was inactivated on 1 Sep 1974.

Oakdale FAA Radar Site
The FAA assumed control of the operations area of the former Air Force radar site in December 1969. The FPS-24 was replaced with a FPS-67B search radar and a backup FPS-8 provided coverage during outages and for the transition. The FPS-67B was installed on the four-story concrete tower built for the FPS-24 and it was covered with a radome.

By 1990 the site was equipped with an FPS-67B search radar and a CD-2A Common Digitizer. The Oakdale CD-2A was scheduled to receive an upgrade kit to implement three level weather data processing in September 1992.

CARSR Radar
At the time of the CARSR changeout, the legacy radar in place was an FPS-67B and the CARSR conversion included a 1561 Antenna. The secondary radar for the site is the ATCBI-6 Beacon set.

Current Status
Now on USAR Charles E. Kelly Support Center, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The radar towers still exist along with the Missile Master Building (repurposed). The FAA compound remains around the old FPS-24 tower now equipped with an FAA CARSR radar on top. The USAF radar site operations building still exists.

See Also:
 * SAGE System
 * Permanent System Radar Sites
 * US Radar Sets
 * NIKE System
 * Oakdale Army Air Defense Command Post PI-70DC
 * Custer SAGE Direction Center DC-06
 * Hancock SAGE Direction Center DC-03
 * Cleveland ARTCC

Sources:
 * , page 158.
 * , page 151.

Links:
 * Radomes - Oakdale Air Force Station
 * Ed Thelen NIKE Website - Oakdale
 * Wikipedia - Oakdale Air Force Station