NEWBURGH, N.Y., - The New York Air National Guard's 213th Engineering Installation Squadron, a tenant unit here at Stewart Air National Guard Base, is taking the lead role in a project to relocate radar systems from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Rome Research Site in Rome, N.Y., to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Assigning the mission to the 213th, along with Air National Guard engineering installation squadrons from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio and Mississippi is expected to save taxpayers between $20-30 million.
The 100 members of the 213th, and the members of the other squadrons, along with U.S. Air Force mobile civil engineering units, known as "Red Horse", will dismantle the four highly, specialized radar units, move them to Wright-Paterson Air Force Base, construct three 100-foot radar towers there, and then mount the radars.
The dismantling of the radars in Rome is expected to begin in June and to continue through September. The new facility at Wright-Patterson is expected to be finished by September of 2011.
The decision to move the research radar facilities from Rome to Dayton was made as part of the 1998 Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) process.
The 213th Engineering Installation Squadron is a New York Air National Guard unit, which reports to Air Force Space Command.
The other participating units are the 212th Engineering Installation Squadron in Mulford Mass., the 211th Engineering Installation Squadron in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., the 219th Engineering Installation Squadron in Tulsa Okla., the 220th Engineering Installation Squadron in Zanesville, Ohio, and the 85th Engineering Installation Squadron at Kessler AFB, Miss.