Country United States | ||
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Active 1946-1948, 1953-1954, 1972–1977, 1988-1999 Branch United States Air Force Type General Radar Surveillance | ||
The 630th Radar Squadron is a previous designation of a provisional United States Air Force (USAF) unit. It is assigned to Air Combat Command to activate or inactivate as needed. It was last stationed at Howard AFB, Panama. It was last inactivated on 1 June 1999.
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History
The squadron was first activated in the Panama Canal Zone as an aircraft direction and control squadron, collocated with its parent group in 1946 when the Army Air Forces (AAF) assumed the radar detection mission previously performed by the Signal Corps. The group performed the aircraft detection, warning and control mission for the Canal Zone for Sixth Air Force (later Caribbean Air Command). The squadron was inactivated in 1948 as the USAF reduced the size of its forces in the Caribbean.
The squadron was redesignated and activated once again as an element of Tactical Air Command (TAC)'s mobile warning and control system when the 157th Tactical Control Group, a Missouri Air National Guard unit that had been federalized for the Korean War was returned to state control and its elements replaced at Alexandria AFB, Louisiana by elements of the regular Air Force 532d Tactical Control Group in late 1953. Moved with the 532nd to Otis AFB, Massachusetts in 1954, where the group was redesignated the 532nd Aircraft Control & Warning Group and transferred with its squadrons from TAC to Air Defense Command (ADC). The group and squadron were inactivated before the end of the year.
Activated a third time in 1972 as an ADC radar squadron, it was colocated with a Federal Aviation Administration control center in Houston, Texas as part of the Southern Air Defense System (SADS) In 1969, the inadequacy of the radar coverage to the south of the United States were dramatically illustrated whan a Cuban MiG-17 went undetected before it landed at Homestead AFB, and two years later, an An-24 similarly arrived unannounced at New Orleans International Airport. As a result, ADC established SADS with the squadron operating a manual control center at the Houston ARTCC and added radars to supplement the existing Federal Aviation Administration coverage in the area, which were manned by the Operating Locations of the squadron.
The squadron spent its longest active period when it returned to Panama under its earlier designation as the 630th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron in 1988. Once again named a Radar Squadron the following year, it focused on counter drug operations. In 1994, it was renumbered to its parent wing's number. It was finally inactivated when the USAF shut down its operations in Panama in conjunction with the turnover of the former Canal Zone to Panama.
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