Albuquerque Air Defense Sector | |
|---|---|
 Emblem of Albuquerque Air Defense Sector | |
| Active | 1 January – 1 November 1960 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Role | Air Defense |
| Part of | Air Defense Command |
| Garrison/HQ | Kirtland Air Force Base |
TheAlbuquerque Air Defense Sector (AADS) is an inactiveUnited States Air Force organization. It was briefly active between 1 January and 1 November 1960, assigned to the33d Air Division atKirtland Air Force Base,New Mexico. The sector was responsible for the air defense of New Mexico and most of Texas, and was inactivated as a result of a shift towardsballistic missile defense.
The Albuquerque Air Defense Sector was activated on 1 January 1960 as a manual sector, lacking aSAGE Computer, atKirtland Air Force Base (AFB), assigned to the simultaneously redesignated33rd Air Division (SAGE);[1] it replaced the34th Air Division (Defense), inactivated on the same date.[2] 34th Air Division commander ColonelLewis W. Stocking took command of the sector, leading it until September.[3][4]
The mission of the AADS was to provide air defense forNew Mexico, most ofTexas, southern Colorado, and theOklahoma Panhandle.[5] The organization provided command and control over three fighter-interceptor squadrons: the 58th atWalker AFB,[6] the 93d at Kirtland,[7] and the 331st atWebb AFB;[8] as well as nine aircraft control and warning squadrons: the683d,685th,686th,687th,688th,697th,732d,768th, and769th, which operated radar stations in New Mexico and Texas.[9][10][11]
The sector operated Manual Air-Defense Control Center (ADCC) (P-41), inherited from the 34th Air Division. A SAGE Direction Center was planned but never built.[12] On 1 November 1960 the Albuquerque ADS was inactivated[1] without gaining operational status when ADC ended command and control operations at Kirtland,[13] part of a reorganization of Air Defense Command against the newballistic missile threat.[14]
The organizations under AADS were inactivated or transferred to theOklahoma City Air Defense Sector before its inactivation, on 15 September. The 58th and 331st Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons were transferred to the Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector,[6][8] along with all of the Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons.[9][10][11] The 260 AADS headquarters personnel were also moved to Oklahoma City.[14] The 93d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron had been inactivated on 8 July as itsNorth American F-86 Sabre fighters were phased out.[7]
|
|
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
