The military defense of Puerto Rico is the responsibility of the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris. Locally, Puerto Rico has its own National Guard, the Puerto Rico National Guard, and its own state defense force, the Puerto Rico State Guard, which, by local law, is under the authority of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The commander-in-chief of both forces is the governor of Puerto Rico, currently Pedro Pierluisi, who delegates his authority to the Puerto Rico Adjutant General, currently Major General José J. Reyes. The Adjutant General, in turn, delegates the authority over the State Guard to another officer but retains the authority over the Puerto Rico National Guard as a whole. At the national level, the commander-in-chief is the President of the United States, currently Joe Biden.
Aguadilla, founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city and municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla is spread over 15 barrios and Aguadilla Pueblo. It is a principal city and core of the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián Metropolitan Statistical Area. This region was already inhabited and known as Aguadilla before 1770. Nevertheless, according to Dr. Agustín Stahl in his Foundation of Aguadilla, it was not until 1780 that the town was officially founded. The construction of a new church and the proceedings to become an independent village began in 1775.
Rafael Hernández Airport, also referred to as the Rafael Hernández International Airport, is an airport located in the municipality of Aguadilla in northwestern Puerto Rico. Named after the composer Rafael Hernández Marín, it is the second-largest airport of the archipelago and island in terms of passenger traffic after the main airport of Luis Muñoz Marín International. It is also home to Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations. Set to be modernized, the 11,702 ft long runway of the airport is the longest in the Caribbean.
Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was the original name for a submarine detection system based on passive sonar developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines. The system's true nature was classified with the name and acronym SOSUS classified as well. The unclassified name Project Caesar was used to cover the installation of the system and a cover story developed regarding the shore stations, identified only as a Naval Facility (NAVFAC), being for oceanographic research. The name changed to Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) in 1985, as the fixed bottom arrays were supplemented by the mobile Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) and other new systems. The commands and personnel were covered by the "oceanographic" term until 1991 when the mission was declassified. As a result, the commands, Oceanographic System Atlantic and Oceanographic System Pacific became Undersea Surveillance Atlantic and Undersea Surveillance Pacific, and personnel were able to wear insignia reflecting the mission.
Naval Facility Bermuda, or NAVFAC Bermuda, was the operational shore terminus for one of the Atlantic Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) array systems installed during the first phase of system installation and in commission from 1955 until 1992. The true surveillance mission was classified and covered by "oceanographic research" until the mission was declassified in 1991. The system's acoustic data was collected after the facility was decommissioned until the system was routed to the central processing facility, the Naval Ocean Processing Facility (NOPF), Dam Neck, Virginia in 1994.
The Puerto Rico Air National Guard(PR ANG) —Spanish: Guardia Nacional Aérea de Puerto Rico— is the aerial militia of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. It is, along with the Puerto Rico Army National Guard and the Puerto Rico State Guard, an element of the Puerto Rico National Guard. After beginning as four units, the PRANG expanded to 11 units by the 1980s, including the 1956th Tactics Combat Group, the 140th Radar Squadron and others.
Naval Facility Nantucket Island or simply Naval Facility Nantucket was a shore terminal of the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) active from 1955 to 1976. The true function of the system and the shore terminals, in which output of the array at sea was processed and displayed by means of the Low Frequency Analyzer and Recorder (LOFAR), was classified and the term "Naval Facility" was intentionally vague. Its function was described as oceanographic research.
Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Barbados, TWI, in commission 1957 to 1979, was the most southern of the Atlantic Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) shore terminals. It had the distinction making the first system detection of a Soviet nuclear submarine in 1962 as that submarine was transiting off Norway. The facility was located adjacent to the Harrison Point Lighthouse, Parish of Saint Lucy.
Carlsen Air Force Base is a former United States Army Air Forces World War II airbase on Trinidad, consisting of two landing strips, "Edinburgh" and "Xeres". The airbase also included an emergency landing strip, "Tobago".
Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen is a United States Coast Guard Air Station located at the Rafael Hernandez International Airport, in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Punta Borinquén Light is a historic lighthouse located in the municipality of Aguadilla on the northwestern corner, known as Punta Borinquén, of the main island of Puerto Rico. Situated on the grounds of the former Ramey Air Force Base, the station was established in 1889 by the Spanish government. With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, the lighthouse would become "the most important aid to navigation on the route from Europe to Panama". In 1917, the U.S Congress provided funding for a new lighthouse in higher ground.
Beane Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located near Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean Sea. It is now the site of Hewanorra International Airport.
The 141st Air Control Squadron (ACS) is a unit of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard. It is a mobile radar command, control and communications element of the United States Air Force Theater Air Control System located at Punta Borinquen Radar Station near by Rafael Hernandez Airport formerly Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Shelburne is a former Canadian Forces Station that was a shore terminus for the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) from 1955 to 1994. It was located in the Municipality of the District of Shelburne, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia.
Fort Allen, officially Fort Allen Training Center, is a Puerto Rico National Guard military installation located on a 373-hectare (921-acre) facility in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico.
Naval Air Facility Adak, was a United States Navy airport located west of Adak, on Adak Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. After its closure in 1997, it was reopened as Adak Airport. The facility was designated a National Historic Landmark for its role in World War II, although most of its elements from that period have been demolished or lie in ruins.
Punta Borinquén Radar Station is a facility of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard home for the 141st Air Control Squadron. Located adjacent to Rafael Hernández Airport, in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The facility has operated since 1964 when the 140th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (ACWS) was created under the control of Air Defense Command (ADC).
Naval Facility Cape Hatteras was a Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) shore terminal, one of the nine initial systems installed, located on Cape Hatteras near Buxton, North Carolina and adjacent to the old location of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. NAVFAC Cape Hatteras, eighth of the initial nine Atlantic systems to be activated, was in commission 11 January 1956 to 30 June 1982.
Naval Facility Point Sur was one of 30 secret sites worldwide that were built during the Cold War to detect Soviet submarines. In 1958, the U.S. Navy built a Naval Facility ½ mile south of Point Sur on the Big Sur coast to provide submarine surveillance using the classified SOund SUrveillance System (SOSUS). The public was told the station was engaged in oceanographic research.
In 1958 Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Centerville Beach was the third Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) shore terminal, in which output of the array at sea was processed and displayed by means of the Low Frequency Analyzer and Recorder (LOFAR), established on the Pacific coast. The previous year the last of the original Atlantic systems, Naval Facility Barbados, had become operational and the first of the Pacific systems had been installed at San Nicolas Island. Naval Facility Point Sur to the south had been commissioned on 8 January 1958. The SOSUS mission, as well as the name itself was classified until 1991. The facility was installed under the cover name Project Caesar and described as being engaged in "oceanographic research" with its actual role in undersea surveillance not revealed until two years before the facility closed.
