PAVE PAWS

PAVE PAWS is a military radar network system of the Air Force Space Command of the United States of America. Currently, three radar systems with different capabilities and configuration in use.

PAVE ' stands as an acronym for a U.S. Air Force program for electronic detection systems and PAWS for Phased Array Warning System ( warning system with phased array antenna). PAVE PAWS was developed by the U.S. defense company Raytheon and used for detection and recognition of launches of Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles ( ICBM) in the Atlantic and Pacific. With this early warning radar system, the time could be significantly expanded and was in the early 1980s at about 15 minutes.

As a secondary mission, the PAVE PAWS system includes acquisition and tracking of satellites orbiting the earth, among others, to 1982 for the Soviet R-36 missile, the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System after were equipped with warheads.

Features

This 32 meter high radar stations have a diameter of about 90 meters with arranged on two sides of a pyramid circular panels that serve as radiating surfaces and are equipped with up to 3,600 radar antennas. The antennas operate while in the frequency range of 420 to 450 MHz and have a range of up to 5,550 kilometers. There are several versions and upgrades of the radar stations with the names AN/FPS-115, AN/FPS-120, AN/FPS-123 and AN/FPS-126. The latest version is the AN/FPS-132 and is also called the Upgraded Early Warning Radar ( UEWR ) and is located on Beale Air Force Base in California and the RAF Fylingdales ( previously AN/FPS-126 ) in the UK. The AN/FPS-132 should also replace the existing since the late 1980s version AN/FPS-120 the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System ( BMW's ) on the Thule Air Base in Greenland.

Active radar stations

In use there are currently three PAVE PAWS missile stations the three seasons of the 21st Space Wing are assumed for missile early warning and space surveillance:

  • Cape Cod Air Force Station, Massachusetts, led by the 6th Space Warning Squadron and since April 4, 1980 in use,
  • Beale AFB, California, led by the 7th Space Warning Squadron and since 15 October 1980 in use,
  • Clear Air Force Station, Alaska, led by the 13th Space Warning Squadron and been operational since 2001.

The information of the radar stations are also directly to the National Military Command Center ( NMCC ) at the Pentagon in Washington DC and to the United States Strategic Command forwarded to the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Radar station on Beale Air Force Base in California

Former radar stations

The two older early-warning radar stations in the version AN/FPS-115 on the Robins Air Force Base in Georgia and the Eldorado Air Force Station in Texas have already ceased operations in 1996. The radar system on the Robins Air Force Base, most recently under the direction of the 9th Space Warning Squadron, was later dismantled, modernized and installed on the Clear Air Force Station in Alaska from 2001 as a replacement for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System ( BMW's ).

References

  • Phased array antenna
  • National Missile Defense
Georgia (U.S. state)
639006
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