This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2016) |
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System | |
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BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility in United States | |
![]() Sketch of Clear Air Force Station BMEWS radars.[a] | |
Type | Radar network |
Site history | |
Built | 1958–1961[4] (complete FOC was January 15, 1964)[5] |
Built by | RCA Defense Electronics Products[6]: 29 [b] |
Fate | Replaced in 2001 by SSPARS
|
The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, 474L System,[17] Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system,[18] for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve radars,[12] which was constructed beginning in 1958 and became operational in 1961, was built to detect a mass ballistic missile attack launched on northern approaches [for] 15 to 25 minutes' warning time[19] also provided Project Space Track[20] satellite data (e.g., about one-quarter of SPADATS observations).[21]
It was replaced by the Solid State Phased Array Radar System in 2001.[22]
DelPapa
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Spring1963
was invoked but never defined (see the help page)....facilities to accommodate the radar came to $62 million. More than 1,100 workers worked on the project. It involved excavating 185,000 cubic yards of dirt and gravel and the pouring of 65,000 yards of concrete. Materials totaled 4,000 tons of structural steel, 2,600 tons of reinforcing steel and 900,000 square feet of fabricated panels.
The Millstone radar served as a development model for RCA's AN/FPS-49, AN/FPS-49A, and AN/FPS-92 radars, all of which were used in the BMEWS. Millstone was used to develop a fundamental understanding of several important environmental challenges facing the BMEWS. These challenges included the measurement of UHF propagation effects in the ionosphere, the impact of refraction close to the horizon, the effect of Faraday rotation on polarization, and the impact of backscatter from meteors and the aurora on the detection performance of the radar and its false-alarm rate [15–17]. In the early 1960s, the Millstone radar was converted from a UHF to an L-band system. The Air Force in the 1960s sponsored the development of Haystack, a versatile facility in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, that supports radar- and radio-astronomy research and the national need for deep-space surveillance.
fan-shaped beams, about 1° in width and 3½° in elevation… The horizontal sweep rate is fast enough that a missile or satellite cannot pass through the fans undetected.
Originally owned by the Air Force, the building was constructed in the 1950s. For years it was an Air Force-operated radar site, operating a ballistic missile early warning system. The warehouse-like gray building was topped by a radome...
Det3
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).It was taken out of service in December, 1974 and dismantled in early 1976. After this, RCA built a replica of a US Navy cruiser deckhouse atop the building that the golf ball sat on for testing its Aegis Combat System and for training Navy personnel. The Aegis facility is still located here, operated jointly by Lockheed Martin (which now operates the radar plant) and the Navy.
GlobalSecurity
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).SAGE—Air Force project 416L—became the pattern for at least twenty-five other major military command-control systems… These were the so-called "Big L" systems and included 425L, the NORAD system; 438L, the Air Force Intelligence Data Handling System; and 474L, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). … Project 465L, the SAC Control System (SACCS)
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BMEWS was replaced by the Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) in 2001. ... CINCAD (Command in Chief, Aerospace Defense Command)
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