History of Montauk Point, NY

An AN/TPS-1B long-range search radar was activated at this site in June 1948. This site fed into a primitive control center established at Roslyn. This site was incorporated into the Lashup (as site L-10) and subsequent permanent network (as site LP-45, P-45) with the 773rd AC&W Squadron overseeing the facility. In 1951 AN/CPS-5 and AN/TPS-10A height-finder radars were placed on the site. A year later AN/FPS-3 and AN/FPS-5 radars were operating. Between 1955 and 1956 an AN/FPS-8/GPS-3 made an appearance at the tip of the Long Island site. In the spring of 1957 this site received one of the first AN/FPS-20 search-radar units along with a pair of AN/FPS-6 height-finder radars. During 1958 Montauk AFS (Z-45) began SAGE operations. In December 1960 the first production model of the frequency-diversity search radars, an AN/FPS-35, became operational at Montauk (the prototype was earlier installed at Thomasville AFS, AL, for field evaluation). This powerful radar caused radio interference problems in the vicinity. These problems caused this radar to be taken out of service in 1961. With the problems resolved, the radar was operational again in 1962, and by 1963 an AN/FPS-26 frequency-diversity height-finder radar had replaced one of the AN/FPS-6 height-finder radars. In 1963 the site also had become an FAA/ADC joint-use facility. Around 1965 the site was removed from joint-use status when the FAA moved into a new long-range radar site at JFK IAP. Montauk AFS came under TAC jurisdiction in 1979. The 773rd Radar Squadron was deactivated on 31 January 1981, and the radar station ceased operations. A new JSS site at Riverhead (Z-315/J-52) assumed coverage. The AN/FPS-35 radar ? the last one in the Air Force inventory ? was abandoned in place, and in 2002 was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

References: "Searching the Skies"; misc. ADCOM documents; eyewitness accounts.


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