Amarillo Air Force Base Radar Site

 (1954-1968) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1954 on Amarillo Air Force Base, Potter County, Texas. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of M-88, later a Sage ID of Z-88. Abandoned in 1968 and turned over to the FAA. Now known as Amarillo FAA Radar Site with an FAA ID of ZAMA.

History
Established and manned in the fall of 1954 as Amarillo Air Force Base Radar Site manned by the 688th 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.

This site was located some 9 miles from the Amarillo Pantex Plant, a key element of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex established in 1951. Pantex has been the nation’s primary assembly, disassembly, retrofit, and life-extension center for nuclear weapons. Initial radar site equipment included the MPS-7 search radar and a TPS-10D height-finder radar. The search radar was upgraded to an FPS-20A and an FPS-6A height-finder radar was installed. The FPS-20A search radar was upgraded to an FPS-67B in 1966.

Amarillo AFB radar site fed the Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector Manual Control Center (ADCC) designated P-86 at Oklahoma City Air Force Station, later redesignated Manual Combat Center (MCC-11) and later NORAD Sector Combat Center (Manual).

Closure
The main site with the radar towers and operations buildings were located in the northeast corner of Amarillo Air Force Base. Most of the support facilities were located on the base proper. By 1968 Amarillo Air Force Base had closed and with the support base gone the decision was made to close the radar station. On 8 Sep 1968, the 688th Squadron was deactivated and a reduced facility was turned over to the FAA.

Amarillo FAA Radar Site
The site had originally become an FAA/USAF joint-use site about 1965 and after the base closure in 1968 the FAA continued to operate the FPS-67B search radar but the FPS-6A height-finder was removed.

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

Current Status
Active FAA Radar Site in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas.

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

Sources:
 * , page 99.
 * , page 156.

Links:
 * Fact Sheet - About Pantex
 * Radomes - Amarillo Air Force Base Radar Site
 * Wikipedia - Amarillo Air Force Base Radar Site