Ballistic Missile Early Warning System

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Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility in United States
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at Clear AFS (diagram).png
Sketch of Clear Space Force Station BMEWS radars [a]
TypeRadar network
Site history
Built1958–1961 [4] (complete FOC was 15 January 1964) [5]
Built by RCA Defense Electronics Products [6] : 29  [b]
FateReplaced 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]

Contents

It was replaced by the Solid State Phased Array Radar System in 2001. [22]

Background

The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was a radar system built by the United States (with the cooperation of Canada and Denmark on whose territory some of the radars were sited) during the Cold War to give early warning of a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear strike, to allow time for US bombers to get off the ground and land-based US ICBMs to be launched, to reduce the chances that a preemptive strike could destroy US strategic nuclear forces.

The shortest (great circle) route for a Soviet ICBM attack on North America is across the North Pole, so the BMEWS facilities were built in the Arctic at Clear Space Force Station in central Alaska, and Site J near Pituffik Space Base, Thule, Greenland. When it became clear in the 1950s that the Soviet Union was developing ICBMs, the US was already building an early-warning radar system in the Arctic, the DEW line, but it was designed to detect bombers and did not have the capability of tracking ICBMs.

The challenges of designing a system that could detect and track a massive strike of hundreds of ICBMs were formidable. The radar sites were located as far north in the Arctic as possible, to give maximum warning time of an attack. However, the time between when a Soviet missile would rise above the horizon and be detected and when it would reach its target in the US was only 10 to 25 minutes.

Equipment

BMEWS consisted of two types of radars and various computer and reporting systems to support them. The first type of radar consisted of very large, fixed rectangular partial-parabolic reflectors with two primary feed points. They produced two fan-shaped microwave beams that allowed them to detect targets across a very wide horizontal front at two narrow vertical angles. These were used to provide wide-front coverage of missiles rising into their radar horizon, and by tracking them at two points as they climbed, enough information to determine their rough trajectory.

The second type of radar was used for fine tracking of selected targets, and consisted of a very large steerable parabolic reflector under a large radome. These radars provided high-resolution angular and ranging information that was fed to a computer for rapid calculation of the probable impact points of the missile warheads. The systems were upgraded several times over their lifetime, replacing the mechanically scanned systems with phased array radar that could perform both roles at the same time.

Three of the huge AN/FPS-50 radars, BMEWS Site 2, near Anderson, Alaska, in 1962 Aerial view of clear AFS site, Official photograph BMEWS Project by C. Henry, 5 July 1962, Photographic Services, Riverton, NJ, BMEWS, clear as negative no. A-3945. - Clear Air Force HAER AK-30-A-96.jpg
Three of the huge AN/FPS-50 radars, BMEWS Site 2, near Anderson, Alaska, in 1962

BMEWS equipment included: [23]

To predict when parts might break down, [42] the contractor also installed RCA 501 computers [43] with 32k high-speed memory, 5-76KC 556 bpi 3/4" tape drives, and 200-track random-access LFE drums.[ citation needed ] The initially replaced portions of BMEWS included the Ent CC&DF by the Burroughs 425L Missile Warning System at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex [44] (FOC 1 July 1966.) [5] The original Missile Impact Predictors were replaced (IOC on 31 August 1984), [5] and BMEWS systems were entirely replaced by 2001 (e.g., radars were replaced with AN/FPS-120 SSPARS) after Satellite Early Warning Systems had been deployed (e.g., 1961 MIDAS, 1968 Project 949, and 1970 DSP satellites).

Classification of radar systems

Under the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), all U.S. military radar and tracking systems are assigned a unique identifying alphanumeric designation. The letters “AN” (for Army-Navy) are placed ahead of a three-letter code. [45]

Thus, the AN/FPS-49 represents the 49th design of an Army-Navy “Fixed, Radar, Search” electronic device. [45] [46]

Early tests

The Thule site J BMEWS station's detection arcs 1961 Eyes of the North - minute 4-51 -- BMEWS arcs and Q points.png
The Thule site J BMEWS station's detection arcs

On 2 June 1955, a General Electric AN/FPS-17 "XW-1" radar at Site IX [50] in Turkey that had been expedited was completed by the US in proximity to the ballistic missile launch test site at Kapustin Yar in the Soviet Union [12] for tracking Soviet rockets [49] and to demonstrate the feasibility of advanced Doppler processing, high-power system components, and computerized tracking needed for BMEWS[ sic ]. [12]

The first missile tracked was on 15 June, and the radar's parabolic reflector was replaced in 1958, [50] and its range was extended from 1000 to 2000 nautical miles [51] after the 1957 Gaither Commission identified that because of expected Soviet ICBM development, there would be little likelihood of SAC's bombers surviving since there was no way to detect an incoming attack until the first warhead landed. [52]

BMEWS' General Operational Requirement 156 was issued on 7 November 1957 (BMEWS was designed to go with the active portion of the WIZARD system) and on 4 February 1958; the USAF informed Air Defense Command (ADC) that BMEWS was an "all-out program" and the "system has been directed by the President, has the same national priority as the ballistic missile and satellite programs and is being placed on the Department of Defense master urgency list". [53] By July 1958 after NORAD manning began, ADC's 1954 blockhouse for the Ent AFB command center had inadequate floor space; and Ent's "requirement for a ballistic missile defense system display facility...brought renewed action...for a new command post" [7] (the JCS approved the nuclear bunker on 11 February 1959).

Planning and development

BMEWS tracking monitors in the Thule Tactical Operations Room, which were upgraded in 1987 BMEWS Tac Ops Room.jpg
BMEWS tracking monitors in the Thule Tactical Operations Room, which were upgraded in 1987

On 14 January 1958, the US announced its decision to establish a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System [56] with Thule to be operational in 1959—total Thule/Clear costs in a May 1958 estimate were ~$800 million (an October 13, 1958, plan for both estimated completion in September 1960.) [57] The Lincoln Laboratory's radar at Millstone Hill, Massachusetts, was built and provided data to a 1958 [58] for trajectory estimates, e.g., Cape Canaveral missiles, and an adjunct high-power UHF test facility employed the Millstone transmitter to stress-test the components that were candidates for the operational BMEWS. [12] (A twin of the Millstone Hill radar was dedicated at Saskatchewan's Prince Albert Radar Laboratory on June 6, 1959.) [12] A prototype AN/FPS-43 BMEWS radar [13] completed at Trinidad in 1958 went operational on 4 February 1959, the date of an Atlas II B firing from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 11 [59] (lunar reflection was tested January–June 1960). [60] On June 30, 1958, NORAD emphasized that the BMEWS could not be considered as a self-contained entity separate from the Nike Zeus, or vice versa. [61]

On 18 March 1959, the USAF told the BMEWS Project Office[ where? ] to proceed with an interim facility [62] : 93  for the "AICBM control center" with an anti-ICBM C3 computer [48] : 148  (e.g., for when the USAF Wizard [48] : 157  and/or Army Nike Zeus [63] ABMs became operational), and the basement of the 1954 ADC blockhouse was considered for the interim center. [48] : 158  A "satellite prediction computer" could be added to the planned missile warning center if Cheyenne Mountain's "hardened COC slipped considerably beyond January 1962" [62] : 93  (tunneling began in June 1961.) In early 1959 for use at Ent in September 1960, a BMEWS display facility with "austere and economical construction with minimum equipment" was planned in an "annex to the current COC building". [62] In late 1959, ARPA opened[ where? ] the 474L System Program Office, [17] and BMEWS' "12th Missile Warning Squadron at Thule...began operating in January 1960." [64] Following aNike ABM intercept of a test missile, the planned Cheyenne Mountain mission was expanded in August 1960 to "a hardened center from which CINCNORAD would supervise and direct operations against space attack as well as air attack" [65] (NORAD assumed "operational control of all space assets with the formation of" SPADATS in October 1960.) [52] The 1st Aerospace Surveillance and Control Squadron (1st Aero) was activated at Ent AFB on 14 February 1961; and Ent's Federal Building was completed c. 1960-1.

Deployment

4 AN/FPS-50 detection reflectors at Thule Site J. The concrete foundation included a large refrigeration system to prevent the curing concrete's heat from melting the permafrost Thule BMEWS.jpg
4 AN/FPS-50 detection reflectors at Thule Site J. The concrete foundation included a large refrigeration system to prevent the curing concrete's heat from melting the permafrost

Clear AFS construction began in August 1958 [42] with 700 workers [42] and was completed 1 July 1961, [42] and Thule Site J construction began by 18 May 1960, [67] with radar pedestals complete by 2 June. [63] Thule testing began on 16 May 1960, [68] IOC was completed on 30 September, [57] and the initial operational radar transmission was in October 1960 [69] (initially duplex vacuum tube IBM 709s occupied two floors).[ citation needed ]

On 5 October 1960, when Khrushchev was in New York, [70] radar returns during moonrise at Thule [71] produced a false alarm. On 20 January 1961, CINCNORAD approved two-second FPS-50 frequency hoping to eliminate reception of echoes beyond artificial satellite orbits. [12] On 24 November 1961, an AT&T operator failure at their Black Forest microwave station northeast of Colorado Springs [72] [ unreliable source? ] caused a BMEWS communications outage to Ent and Offutt –a B-52 near Thule confirmed the site still remained. [73]

Training for civilian technicians included a February 1961 RCA class in New Jersey for a Tracking Radar Automatic Monitoring class. [74] The "Clear Msl Early Warning Stn, Nenana, AK" was assigned to Hanscom Field, Massachusetts, by the JCA on 1 April 1961. [75] By 16 May 1961, Ent's "War Room at NORAD" had a glass map for plotting aircraft and had a "map [that] lights up" to show multiple impact ellipses and times "before the huge missile[s] would burst" [70] (separate from Ent's BMEWS CC&DF building, the two-story blockhouse had a war room with, left of the main NORAD region display, a BMEWS display map and "threat summary display" with a count of incoming missiles.) [76] [i] The Trinidad Test Site transferred from Rome AFB to Patrick AFB on 1 July 1961 (closed as "Trinidad Air Station" on 1 October 1971) [75] and the same month, the 1st Aero began using Ent's Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS) operation center in building P4's annex [77] (Cheyenne Mtn's Space Defense Center became fully operational in 1967.) [56] The BRCS undersea cable was cut "presumably by fishing trawlers" in September, October, and November 1961 (the BMEWS teletype and backup SSB substituted); [40] and in December 1961, Capt. Joseph P. Kaufman was charged "with giving [BMEWS] defense data to ... East German Communists." [78]

BMEWS surveillance wing

The 71st Surveillance Wing, Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, was activated on 6 December 1961, at Ent AFB (renamed 71st Missile Warning Wing on 1 January 1967, at McGuire AFB 21 July 1969 – 30 April 1971). [75] Syracuse's BMEWS Test Facility at GE's High-Power Radar Laboratory [79] became the responsibility of Rome Air Development Center on 11 April 1962 [80] (Syracuse's Eagle Hill Test Annex closed in 1970) [75] and on 31 July 1962, NORAD recommended a tracking radar station at Cape Clear to close the BMEWS gap with Thule for low-angle missiles (versus those with the 15-65 degree angle for which BMEWS was designed.) [40] By mid-1962, BMEWS "quick fixes" for ECCM had been installed at Fylingdales Moor, Thule and Cape Clear AK [40] and by June 30, integration of BMEWS and SPADATS at Ent AFB was completed. [5] During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Moorestown AN/FPS-49 radar on 24 October was "withdrawn from SPADATS and realigned to provide missile surveillance over Cuba." [40] 1962 "strikes and walkouts" delayed Fylingdales' planned completion from March until September 1963 and on 7 November, the Pentagon BMEWS display subsytem installation was complete. [5] At the end of 1962, NORAD was "concerned over BMEWS' virtual inability to detect objects beyond a range of 1500 nautical miles." [40] The Moorestown FPS-49 completed a BMEWS "signature analysis program" on scale models by January 1963. [15]

Air Defense Command / Aerospace Defense Command

Fylingdales AN/FPS-49 radomes in 1986 RAF Fylingdales golfballs 1989.jpg
Fylingdales AN/FPS-49 radomes in 1986

Operations transferred from civilian contractors (RCA Government Services) [6] : 29  to ADC on 5 January 1962 [69] (renamed Aerospace Defense Command in 1968.) Fylingdales became operational on 17 September 1963, [84] [69] and Site III transferred to RAF Fighter Command on 15 January 1964. [85] Remaining BMEWS development responsibilities transferred to the "Space Track SPO (496L)" when the BMEWS SPO closed on 14 February 1964 [5] —e.g., the AN/FPS-92 with "66-inch panels" [86] was added to Clear in 1966 [87] (last of the five tracking radars), [88] and in 1967, BMEWS modification testing was complete on 15 May, when the system cost totaled $1.259 billion, [5] equivalent to $8.78 billion in 2023. [89] In 1968, Ent's 9th Division HQ had a Spacetrack/BMEWS Maintenance Section. [90]

In 1975, SECDEF told Congress that Clear would be closed when Cobra Dane and the Beale AFB PAVE PAWS became operational. [91] By 1976, BMEWS included IBM 7094, CDC 6000, and Honeywell 800 computers. [92]

USAF Space Command

On 1 October 1979, Thule and Clear transferred to Strategic Air Command when ADCOM was broken up [93] then to Space Command in 1982. By 1981 Cheyenne Mountain had been averaging 6,700 messages per hour [94] compiled via sensor inputs from BMEWS, the JSS, the 416N SLBM "Detection and Warning System, COBRA DANE, and PARCS as well as SEWS and PAVE PAWS" for transmission to the NCA. [95] To replace AN/FSQ-28 predictors, a late 1970s plan for processing returns from MIRVs [96] installed in new Missile Impact Predictor computers was complete by September 1984. [5] [54]

Replacement

The BMEWS was replaced by the Solid State Phased Array Radar System in 2001. [22]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Replaced by a Solid State Phased Array Radar System [1] constructed April 16, 1998 – February 1, 2001. [2] [3]
  2. ↑ RCA was contracted in January 1958 [7] and employed 485 large companies and 2415 smaller firms spread over 29 states [8] ($474,831,000 contract in February 1960; equivalent to $4,890,385,417in 2023) [9]
  3. 1 2 Air Defense Command radar stations (cf. ADC general surveillance stations)
  4. ↑ site for FPS-50 prototype [12] (AN/FPS-43) [13]
  5. ↑ site for 1959–76 [16] [ unreliable source? ] FPS-49 prototype [13] and test/training [6]
  6. ↑ The Thule site J BMEWS station's detection arcs of 200° [47] were a missile warning "fence" created by 4 radars' separate arcs: each AN/FPS-50 created 2 arcs (shown) centered at 3.5° and 7° elevation [13] (exaggerated in illustration.) Each arc was created by a smaller radar beam ~1° wide x 3.5° high at a "horizontal sweep rate...fast enough that a missile or satellite cannot pass through...undetected". [13] Concerns in 1962 of "ERBM's (Extended Range Ballistic Missiles)" were that missile speeds after burnout would be higher than the initially-deployed Soviet ICBMs [48] and prevent the sweeping "Lower Fan" and then the "Upper Fan" (with "revisit time of 2 sec") [49] from detecting the missiles. A missile within the lower arc (~1.75-5.25° elevation) would be detected at a "Lower Fan Q Point" (black dot) and then by the upper fan (black dot with jagged outline), which allowed the impact area to be estimated from "where the object crossed the two fans and the elapsed time interval between fan crossings" [13] (displays showed the uncertain impact point as an elliptical area.) The free flight range of the missile outside the atmosphere (burnout to reentry) depends on the flight path angle and on the missile's parametric value of Q calculated from altitude and speed—additional ballistic range within the atmosphere to an estimated burst altitude was determined from computerized look-up tables in the Missile Impact Predictor. [13]
  7. ↑ (renamed "Missile Warning Operations Center" [55] )
  8. ↑ replaced by an AN/FPS-120 with "two-faced...phased array radar...in 2QFY87." [66]
  9. ↑ The p. 4 command post photo caption does not identify if it is in the Ent blockhouse (1954–1963) or in the Chidlaw Building, where war room operations moved to the NORAD/CONAD Combined Operations Center in 1963.
  10. ↑ 2 of 3 radars were "constantly swinging back and forth in preset arcs to the east and north, looking 4,800 kilometres into space, from just above the horizon to nearly straight overhead". [81] Fylingdales radars were replaced by Raytheon/Cossor AeroSpace and Control Data Corporation, at a cost of US $100M (3-faced phased array antenna and embedded CDC-Cyber computer)[ citation needed ] and later changed to an Upgraded Early Warning Radar by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems [82] with 3 faces built August 1989-October 1992. [83]

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References

  1. ↑ "Raytheon wins Air Force Contract for Radar and Communications Sites (Press Release)". Raytheon via thefreelibrary.com. 7 September 1994. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  2. ↑ "AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased-Array System [SSPARS]: Clear Radar Upgrade". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Clear AFS, AK". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "HAER AK-30-A - Clear Air Force Station, Ballistic Missile Early Warning System Site II". Historic American Engineering Record. 2003.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Del Papa, Dr. E. Michael; Warner, Mary P (October 1987). A Historical Chronology of the Electronic Systems Division 1947–1986 (PDF) (Report). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2014. 7 November [1984] Installation of [SSPARS] radar hardware at Site I, Thule, Greenland, for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was begun.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Shore, Bruce (Spring 1963). "the fourth state of matter". Electronics Age. RCA. Several hundred RCA management, technical, and engineering personnel run the 80 control stations that make up White Alice, the country's largest over-the-horizon communications system. The stations, mostly on mountaintops, employ two types of antenna – one a 30-foot, disc-shaped structure and the other a 100-ton scoop-shaped unit 60 feet tall. The antennas relay signals from one to the other, sometimes over distances up to 170 miles. … In 1952, Mr. Heller led a group of RCA field engineers to a minor military installation at Cape Canaveral. From this simple beginning, the RCA Service Company became a subcontractor to Pan American for the planning, systems engineering, operation, and maintenance of the vast complex instrumentation systems that constitute the Atlantic Missile Range.
  7. 1 2 3 Preface by Buss, L. H. (Director) (1 October 1958). North American Air Defense Command Historical Summary: January–June 1958 (Report). Directorate of Command History: Office of Information Services. NORAD looked at the Zl portion of the BMEWS not only as an integral portion of the system, but as the heart of the entire ballistic missile defense system.
  8. ↑ Engstrom, E.W. (February 1984). "The years 1958-1962" (PDF). 100 Years With IEEE In The Delaware Valley, Part 1. Philadelphia Section of IEEE. p. 16.
  9. ↑ "Big Missile-Warning System Outlay". The Age. Melbourne. Australian Associated Press. 16 February 1960.
  10. ↑ "Remembering Our Heritage 25 June - 1 July" (PDF). Office of History, Elmendorf AFB via AlaskaWingCAF.org. Retrieved 5 November 2016. ...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.
  11. ↑ "FYLINGDALES: Home of the Number One BMEWS Detachment" (image copy at Radomes.org). Q Point. 9th Aerospace Defense Division. August 1967. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Stone & Banner. Radars for the Detection and Tracking of Ballistic Missiles, Satellites, and Planets (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2014. 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.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bate; Mueller & White (1971) [origyear tbd]. Fundamentals of Astronautics (Google books). Courier Corporation. ISBN   9780486600611 . Retrieved 5 March 2014. 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.
  14. ↑ "USS Rancocas: The Cornfield Cruiser". LockheedMartin.com. Retrieved 10 March 2014. 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...
  15. 1 2 Scale Model Radar Cross Section Data (PDF) (Report). BLDG 116-20, RCA, Moorestown NJ: Detachment 3, 9th...Division. 10 January 1963. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014. eventual transfer to a Spacetrack Analysis Center at Colorado Springs.{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  16. ↑ Flack, John S. Jr. "Moorestowns Giant Golf Ball" (personal anecdote w/ photos). Personal web page on Homestead.com. Retrieved 10 March 2014. 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.
  17. 1 2 "Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS): AN/FPS-50 Detection Radar AN/FPS-92 Tracking Radar". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  18. ↑ Edwards, Paul N. (1997). The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America (Google Books). MIT Press. p. 107. ISBN   9780262550284. 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)
  19. ↑ McNamara, Robert (3 November 1961). Report to the US Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee on Warning and Detection systems (PDF) (Report). National Archives via nsarchive.gwu.edu. p. 5.
  20. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ↑ Peebles, Curtis (June 1997). High Frontier: The U.S. Air Force and the Military Space Program. DIANE. p. 39. ISBN   9780788148002.
  22. 1 2 Chapman, Bert (2008). Space Warfare and Defense: A Historical Encyclopedia and Research Guide (Google books). Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   9781598840063 . Retrieved 13 March 2014. BMEWS was replaced by the Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) in 2001. ... CINCAD (Command in Chief, Aerospace Defense Command)
  23. 1 2 "Annual Report of the Secretary of Defense, The Armed Forces, pp. 14-15 ("Continental Air Defense" section)" (PDF). Department of Defense Annual Report (Report). 1960. Archived from the original (MDA.mil excerpt) on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2014. The imminent shift in the air threat to our security from aircraft alone to ballistic missiles and aircraft led to [require] a reduction in the programs for the BOMARC missile and the hardened "supercombat" centers for the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, and an acceleration in the modernization of the fighter interceptor forces and in the construction of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) [with] three widely dispersed, long-range radar stations, a central computer and display facility in the United States, and a communications network to link the separate elements.
  24. ↑ Fay, Elton C. (18 May 1960). "Radar Net Nearing Completion". Register-Guard. Eugene, Oregon. AP.
  25. ↑ "FPS-50". radomes.org.
  26. ↑ "AN/FPS-49, 49A". radomes.org. Retrieved 5 March 2014. The prototype unit operated at Moorestown, New Jersey
  27. ↑ "Thule's Electronic Sentinel" (Google news archive). The Milwaukee Journal . 4 January 1961. Retrieved 9 March 2014.[ permanent dead link ]
  28. ↑ "FPS-92" . Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  29. ↑ "MONITORING SET, RADAR - continued - TM-11-487C-10192". Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  30. ↑ "Cold War Comms Group forum". groups.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014.
  31. ↑ title tbd (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 7 March 2014. Missile Impact Predictor Set AN/FSQ-28 accepts output of Radar Set AN/FPS-19 or AN/FPS-19A and Radar Set AN/FPS-50(V) to determine the trajectory of space objects and predicts the point of impact. Furnishes designation data to tracking Radar for enhancing target data accuracy. The AN/FSQ-28 is a duplex, general purpose computer (IBM-709-TX with real-time terminal and control equipment added).
  32. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) the USA and UK agreed to be separately responsible for their own rearward data handling systems.’ [46] The UK systems were to meet Air Staff Requirement 2208 and called for ‘display of processed IRBM data at the Air Defence Operations Centre (ADOC), the Bomber Command Operations Centre (BCOC), the Air Ministry Operations Centre and, for standby purposes, at the Air Defence Main Control Centre and Headquarters No. 1 Group. The processed data will also be passed to NORAD over the USA rearward data handling system and this system
  33. 1 2 Gandy, A. (30 November 2012). The Early Computer Industry: Limitations of Scale and Scope. Springer. p. 48. ISBN   9780230389113.
  34. ↑ Moora, Robert L (Autumn 1960). "BMEWS Takes Shape…On Schedule: Greenland radar site begins early warning operations…" (PDF). Electronic Age. Retrieved 6 March 2014. a "data takeoff" computer translates the visual image into digital form, calculating distance, range, angle of flight, speed and direction. In split seconds, this data is on its way to a high-speed "missile impact predictor" computer. … prime system contractor is the Radio Corporation of America, with headquarters at the Missile and Surface Radar Division, Moorestown… Principal subcontractors to RCA include General Electric Company…
  35. ↑ "ABMWSP Summary - 23 Apr 1960". alternatewars.com World War III wargame alternative reality website. Progress is satisfactory on the establishment of rearward communications from the forward sites to the Zone of the Interior display facilities at Colorado Springs, Colorado. On 1 December, through communication was established between the switchboard at Thule and the BMEWS Project Office in New York City. This tie line, together with a similar one between Thule and Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, represents the first use to be made of the submarine cable completed this last summer between Thule and Cape Dyer.
  36. ↑ Olsson, Tom (31 October 1969). Report of the Economic Committee on Domestic Satellites (PDF) (Report). US Office of Telecommunications Management via claywhitehead.com.
  37. ↑ Mitchell, Walt. "Memories of Troposcatter at Resolution Island". Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014. he BMEWS Rearward link came from Thule to Dye to ResX1 to ResX on Resolution and then on to Goose Bay. I suspect that was the link maintained by Canadian Marconi under contract in the 1961 to 1974 period.
  38. ↑ "DEWDROP Troposheric Scatter AM Communications Link between Thule BMEWS and Cape Dyer". Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  39. ↑ Bubb, John. "Tropospheric Scatter Communications Site Saglek Labrador Canada Circa 1969/70". Personal Webpage at members.shaw.ca. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "1962 NORAD/CONAD Historical Summary, July-December" (PDF). Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  41. ↑ SAC Command Post, Reel 2. National Archives Motion Pictures Unit, Record Group 342 via nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  42. 1 2 3 4 "Watchful eye of BMEWS turns toward Soviets" (Google news archive). Ellensburg Daily Record. 18 June 1961. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  43. ↑ "RCA501". Archived from the original on 2 July 2012.
  44. ↑ "NORAD's Information Processing Improvement Program: Will It Enhance Mission Capability?" (Report to Congress). Comptroller General. 21 September 1978. Retrieved 24 January 2013. The 496L Spacetrack system uses a Philco 212 computer as its primary processor. … The off-line utility processors are two Philco 1000 computers which can also serve as backup processors for the 496L system and the Automatic Digital Relay Switch, if necessary. … The NCS segment will replace the Burroughs 425L Command and Control system including the Univac 1218s, the 425L Back-up system, the Command Center Processing system, and the Display Information Processor.
  45. 1 2 Avionics Department (2013). "Missile and Electronic Equipment Designations". Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook (PDF) (4 ed.). Point Mugu, California: Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division. p. 2-8.1.
  46. ↑ Winkler, David F. (1997). "Radar Systems Classification Methods". Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program (PDF). Langley AFB, Virginia: United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command. p. 73. LCCN   97020912.
  47. ↑ Hanley, Charles J (17 August 1987). "Soviets, Eskimos protest Thule radar" (Google news archive). Morning Star. Wilmington, North Carolina. Associated Press . Retrieved 9 March 2014. The radar, a Phased Array Warning System…can "see" 3,200 miles, 200 miles farther than the old system, and has a 240-degree arc…40 degrees more than the old.
  48. 1 2 3 4 Preface by Buss, L. H. (Director) (14 April 1959). North American Air Defense Command and Continental Air Defense Command Historical Summary: July–December 1958 (Report). Directorate of Command History: Office of Information Services.
  49. 1 2 Skolnik, Merrill. "Oral-History" (audio transcript). IEEE Global History Network. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  50. 1 2 Zabetakis, Stanley G; Peterson, John F (2 July 1996) [Fall 1964]. The Diyarbakir Radar (Report). Archived from the original on 12 March 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Data on target missiles or satellites are recorded in each radar channel by photographing a five-inch intensity-modulated oscilloscope with the camera shutter open on a 35-mm film moving approximately five inches per minute. ... The FTD Oscar equipment consists of a film reader which gives time and range data in analog form, a converter unit that changes them to digital form, and an IBM printing card punch that receives the digital data. The Oscar equipment and human operator thus generate a deck of IBM cards for...each target's position through time.
  51. ↑ Development of the Soviet Ballistic Missile Threat (George Washington University video). USAF Aerospace Audio Visual Service. 1960. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  52. 1 2 Freeman, Maj Steve (September 1997). "Visionaries, Cold War, hard work built the foundations of Air Force Space Command". Guardian Magazine…funded Air Force newspaper. Vol. 5, no. 6 (Special Anniversary ed.). Peterson Air Force Base. pp. 6, 9.
  53. ↑ USAF memo to Air Defense Command cited in 1958 NORAD/CONAD Historical Summary, Jan-Jun
  54. 1 2 "Document Detail for IRISNUM= 01073102". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  55. ↑ "Clear AFS". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  56. 1 2 "NORAD Selected Chronology". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 5 March 2014. 14 Jan 58 -- United States announced decision to establish a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (list also at NORAD.mil Archived September 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine & in 2008 book
  57. 1 2 Wainstein; et al. Evolution of Command and Control… (PDF) (Report). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  58. ↑ Dinneen, G. P.; Lebow, I. L.; Reed, I. S. (3 December 1958). "The logical design of CG24". Papers and discussions presented at the December 3-5, 1958, eastern joint computer conference: Modern computers: Objectives, designs, applications on XX - AIEE-ACM-IRE '58 (Eastern). pp. 91–94. doi:10.1145/1458043.1458064. ISBN   9781450378666. S2CID   17821721.
  59. ↑ "ATLAS B" . Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  60. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140311181855/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/265165.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2023.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  61. ↑ NORAD BMEWS and AICBM System Display (Report). 30 June 1958. (cited by 1958 NORAD/CONAD Historical Summary, Jan-Jun)
  62. 1 2 3 Preface by Buss, L. H. (Director) (1 November 1959). North American Air Defense Command and Continental Air Defense Command Historical Summary: January–June 1959 (Report). Directorate of Command History: Office of Information Services. pp. 92, 94.
  63. 1 2 Rogers, Warren Jr. (2 June 1960). "Summit Failure Speeds Up Development of BMEWS". Herald Tribune News Service. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  64. ↑ Muolo (December 1993). Space Handbook. Air University Press. Archived from the original (manual) on 12 December 2012.
  65. ↑ title tbd (Report). Air Research and Development Command. (cited by Schaffel, p. 262)
  66. ↑ "Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) at Clear". 12 July 1999. Archived from the original on 17 December 2000.
  67. ↑ "Big Rocket Detector Is Set for Operation" (Google news archive). The Fort Scott Tribune. 18 May 1960. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  68. ↑ "Electronic Sky Watch is Nearing". The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. AP. 16 May 1960. p. 1.
  69. 1 2 3 "Ballistic Warning Is Aim of BMEWS" (Google news archive). The Evening News. Newburgh, New York. 19 June 1964. Retrieved 9 March 2014. high-speed scanning switches and a massive array of feedhorns… Federal Electric Corp., Paramus, N.J., is the prime contractor for manning and maintaining the Thule BMEWS site.
  70. 1 2 Pearson, Drew (16 May 1961). "A Day In The War Room At NORAD" (Google news archive). The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved 9 March 2014.[ permanent dead link ]
  71. ↑ Sampson, Curt (25 January 2010). "The Moon as a Soviet Missile Attack" . Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  72. ↑ "AT&T caused NORAD blackout". EVER WONDER?. Colorado Springs Gazette. 26 August 2011. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2014. an engineer we'll call "Q" didn't follow instructions "for routining a TD2 transmitter and receiver." He enclosed diagrams showing what went wrong. There was no "500A termination on the Channel Dropping Network when he was running the Radio Frequency (RF) Sweep Generator to adjust the equipment." That generator leaked RF into the Channel Separating Filter "interfering with all the other transmitters in the Black Forest Microwave Station, causing a complete failure of all channels going to Ent. SAC scrambled all aircraft. Later SAC billed AT&T for all the fuel used."
  73. ↑ Philips, Alan F. "20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War". NuclearFiles.org. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  74. ↑ McManus, Gene (September 1996). "BMEWS – 51- Full Days". Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  75. 1 2 3 4 Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases (PDF) (Report). Vol. I: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Office of Air Force History. ISBN   0-912799-53-6.
  76. ↑ "NORAD Center Located At Colorado Springs Site" (Google news archive). The Othello Outlook. 26 November 1964. p. 3. Retrieved 9 March 2014. COMMAND POST – The main battle staff position in the Combat Operations Center (COC)...fronts a display area which allows observers to see the positions of airborne objects thousands of miles away.
  77. ↑ [ full citation needed ]1961–1969 Historical reports from the Squadron on file at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB AL, AFHRA Microfilm reel KO363
  78. ↑ "Captain Faces Secrets Count". The Deseret News. HTNS. 22 December 1961. p. A3.
  79. ↑ "Of current interest: Surveillance radar subsystem for Air Force's BMEWS, Site 1". Electrical Engineering. 79 (5): 430–431. 1960. doi:10.1109/EE.1960.6432626.
  80. ↑ Forty Years of Research and Development at Griffis Air Force Base: June 1951-June 1991 (PDF) (Report). Rome Laboratory. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  81. ↑ "Soviets scan British radar improvements". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 June 1988. p. 18.
  82. ↑ "Fylingdales". Raytheon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  83. ↑ Stocker, Jeremy (2004). Gray, Colin S.; Murray, Williamson (eds.). Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence 1942–2002 (PDF). Frank Cass. ISBN   0-203-30963-4. ISSN   1473-6403 . Retrieved 9 March 2014. in March 1963 an Air Ministry review of ABM systems said of MIDAS that 'performance to date has been disappointing'.78 … A teletype circuit was established between NORAD and the ADOC in Britain to pass information derived from Site 1 at Thule.95 This was supplemented by a voice circuit with agreed formatted messages, and both were operational by October 1960. … AN/FPS-49 Range resolution 240 nm Maximum range 2,650 nm Minimum target at 1,650 m 2.8 m2 Impact accuracy North America 135 nm
  84. ↑ "Early Warning System has Important Role in NORAD". The Othello Outlook. Othello, Washington. 26 November 1964. p. 6.
  85. ↑ Wilson, B.C.F. (1 January 1983). A History - Royal Air Force Fylingdales. Royal Air Force Flyingdales (January 1, 1983). ISBN   0950852104. [plaque in the Tactical Operations Room] This plaque commemorates the commissioning of Royal Air Force Fylingdales as Site III of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System on 17 September 1963. This site is a joint enterprise of the United States of America and Great Britain for the protection of both the North American Continent and the United Kingdom.
  86. ↑ Radome is maze of wires, girders. 29 March 1962. p. 17.{{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)
  87. ↑ "Electronic Eye Scans Eurasian Air Space". The Morning Record. AP. 8 July 1966. p. 14.
  88. ↑ "Electronic Eye Watches For Sneak Missile Attack" (Google news archive). Herald-Journal. 8 July 1966. Retrieved 9 March 2014. rotating 84-foot parabolic radar dish antenna…weighing 185 tons, can detect and track a 16-inch piece of wire 1-32nd of an inch in diameter, at a distance of 2,500 miles… The electronic dishes, each costing $19 million…
  89. ↑ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 30 November 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  90. ↑ "Outstanding Airman of the Year History" (PDF). Unknown source via higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2016.[ unreliable source? ][ improper synthesis? ]
  91. ↑ Schlesinger, James R. (5 February 1975). Report of the Secretary of Defense to the Congress on the FY 1976 and Transition Budgets... (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2011.
  92. ↑ "Electronic Technicians BMEWS" (PDF). p. 27. Archived from the original (job advertisement) on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014. FELEC Services…a subsidiary of Federal Electric…newly awarded contract at Thule…IBM 360-7090 and 7094; CDC 6000; Honeywell 800
  93. ↑ compiled by Johnson, Mildred W (31 December 1980) [Feb 1973 original by Cornett, Lloyd H. Jr]. A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946–1980 (PDF). Peterson AFB: Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2006. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  94. ↑ Failures of the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) attack warning system (minutes of "hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress; May 19 and 20, 1981") (Report). United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved 23 January 2013. at Norad is the establishment of a Systems Integration Office
  95. ↑ Modernization of the WWMCCS Information System (WIS) (ADA095409) (Report). United States House Committee on Armed Services. 19 January 1981. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  96. ↑ Aldridge, Robert C. (1983). First Strike!: The Pentagon's Strategy for Nuclear War. South End Press. p. 197. ISBN   9780896081543.
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