The AN/FPS-133 Air Force Space Surveillance System, colloquially known as the Space Fence, was a U.S. government multistatic radar system built to detect orbital objects passing over America. It is a component of the U.S. space surveillance network, and according to the U.S. Navy was able to detect basketball sized objects at heights up to 30,000 km (19,000 mi).
Hunter Army Airfield, located in Savannah, Georgia, United States, is a military airfield and subordinate installation to Fort Stewart located in Hinesville, Georgia.
Ground Equipment Facility J-33 is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar station of the Joint Surveillance System's Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) with an Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR-4). The facility was previously a USAF general surveillance radar station during the Cold War.
The 1st Combat Evaluation Group was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) unit. It was formed on 1 August 1961 to merge the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group for SAC aircrew evaluation with the 1st Radar Bomb Scoring Group that had originated from the 263rd Army Air Force Base Unit which transferred from 15th AF to directly under Strategic Air Command c. 1946. The 1CEVG formed after SAC switched to low-level tactics to counter Soviet surface-to-air missiles and SAC had "developed a Radar Bomb Scoring field kit for use in NIKE Systems" in early 1960 for scoring SAC training missions against US Hercules SAM sites. The 1CEVG headquarters included an Office of History and a "standardization and evaluation school" for command examiners.
The Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) is one of two military training areas at the Nellis Air Force Base Complex in Nevada and used by the United States Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base. The NTTR land area includes a "simulated Integrated Air Defense System", several individual ranges with 1200 targets, and 4 remote communication sites. The current NTTR area and the range's former areas have been used for aerial gunnery and bombing, for nuclear tests, as a proving ground and flight test area, for aircraft control and warning, and for Blue Flag, Green Flag, and Red Flag exercises.
Ground Equipment Facility J-36A is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar station of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS) in the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) of NORAD.
Mount Laguna Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 24.3 miles (39.1 km) north-northeast of Tecate, California. It was closed in 1981 by the Air Force, and turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The Reeves AN/MSQ-77 Bomb Directing Central, Radar was a United States Air Force automatic tracking radar/computer system for command guidance of aircraft. It was often used during Vietnam War bomb runs at nighttime and during bad weather. Developed from the Reeves AN/MSQ-35, the AN/MSQ-77 reversed the process of Radar Bomb Scoring by continually estimating the bomb impact point before bomb release with a vacuum tube ballistic computer. Unlike "Course Directing Central" systems which guided aircraft to a predetermined release point, the AN/MSQ-77 algorithm continuously predicted bomb impact points during the radar track while the AN/MSQ-77's control commands adjusted the aircraft course. A close air support regulation prohibited AN/MSQ-77 Combat Skyspot bombing within 1,000 yd (910 m) of friendly forces unless authorized by a Forward Air Controller, and "on several occasions" strikes were as close as 273 yd (250 m).
Cheli Air Force Station, in Bell, southeastern Los Angeles County, California, was a United States Air Force installation and a Cold War Radar Bomb Scoring site of the Strategic Air Command, from 1947 to 1961.
Radar Bomb Scoring is a combat aviation ground support operation used to evaluate Cold War aircrews' effectiveness with simulated unguided bomb drops near radar stations of the United States Navy, the USAF Strategic Air Command, and Army Project Nike units. USAF RBS used various ground radar, computers, and other electronic equipment such as jammers to disrupt operations of the bomber's radar navigator, AAA/SAM simulators to require countermeasures from the bomber, and Radar Bomb Scoring Centrals for estimating accuracy of simulated bombings. Scores for accuracy and electronic warfare effectiveness were transmitted from radar sites such as those at Strategic Range Training Complexes.
RBS Express railroad trains were 3 mobile United States Air Force radar stations for 1CEVG Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) of Strategic Air Command bomber crews beginning in March 1961. Electronic equipment included the "MSQ-39, TLQ-11, MPS-9, and the IFF/SIF for the MSQ-39" along with support railcars, and the trains were temporarily used at various rail sites with the radar antennas emplaced using hoists built onto flatcars. Pulled by a "contracted locomotive" that left the train at the site, and a North American B-25 Mitchell was used for calibration of the radar station.
The Badlands Bombing Range (BBR) refers to Rapid City Army Air Base target ranges for World War II which included the current Air Force Retained Area, an inactive 2,486-acre (10.06 km2) United States Air Force site "20 miles southeast" of Scenic, South Dakota. The retained area is the remainder of 341,726 acres (1,382.92 km2) federally acquired in 1942 under eminent domain at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In addition to use by World War II aircraft, BBR was used for a post-war Army National Guard gunnery range and a Cold War Radar Bomb Scoring site.
The AN/MPQ-2 Close Cooperation Control Unit was a truck-mounted automatic tracking radar/computer/communication system for aircraft command guidance, e.g., missile tracking, and for Radar Bomb Scoring. It was introduced shortly after the end of World War II. For ground directed bombing (GDB), an operator would manually plot a target on the "Blind Bombing Plotting Sheet", then use the manual "E6B computer and bombing tables" to plot the release point for striking the target, after which a radar operator used the AN/MPQ-2 to acquire a track of the bomber near an initial point during which allowed ground control of the bomb run to the release point.
Hawthorne Bomb Plot is a Formerly Used Defense Site that had a Strategic Air Command (SAC) AUTOTRACK radar station during the Cold War. Operations began at a temporary RBS train site for RBS Express #2 was at the Hawthorne area in December 1961, and the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron subsequently established the fixed military installation for Radar Bomb Scoring in Babbitt, Nevada, the military housing community near the local Navy/Army depot.
The Salt Lake City Radar Bomb Scoring Site is a Formerly Used Defense Site that was an automatic tracking (AUTOTRACK) radar station during the Cold War. Operated by Detachment 6 of the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron which had relocated from the Phoenix semi-mobile RBS station in December 1964, the military installation evaluated practice bomb runs by Strategic Air Command simulating attacks on the metropolitan area and on the Hill Air Force Range which had been the Salt Lake City Army Air Base Gunnery Range in World War II.
The Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site opened in August 1960 on Hurley Butte, adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and a few miles from Interior, South Dakota. The Interior RBSS is a Formerly Used Defense Site, that closed in 1968.
The 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group was a military evaluation unit under direct command of Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters for scoring simulated bomb runs using automatic tracking radar stations. Initially an Army Air Forces Base Unit (AAFBU) and then a squadron, the 3903rd RBS Group was personnel, assets, and detachments were redesignated the 1st Radar Bomb Scoring Group and then the 1CEVG Radar Bomb Scoring Division when the RBS Group merged with the 3908th Strategic Standardization Group in 1961, the year RBS Express trains began to be used for low-altitude Boeing B-52 Stratofortress operations..
Holbrook Radar Bomb Scoring Site is a Formerly Used Defense Site of 8 acres (3.2 ha) near Winslow, Arizona, that was used as a Cold War Strategic Air Command radar station for the Holbrook Radar Bomb Scoring Range. Detachment 2 of the Radar Bomb Scoring Division transferred its personnel and equipment from the South Dakota Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site Spring 1968. The site had a housing area, and after the division became the 1st Electronic Combat Range Group (1ECRG), in August 1989 the detachment and site transferred from the 1ECRG to the 99th Strategic Weapons Wing.
On January 7, 1971, a Boeing B-52C Stratofortress of Strategic Air Command crashed into northern Lake Michigan at the mouth of Little Traverse Bay near Charlevoix, Michigan, while on a low-level training flight. All nine crew members aboard were lost. No remains of the crewmen were recovered. Parts of the aircraft were retrieved from a water depth of 225 feet (69 m) in May and June 1971. The structural remains included parts of the wings, all eight engines, the tail, crew section, landing gear and wheels, plus numerous smaller parts of the plane. Oceans Systems, a Florida-based salvage company, carried out the recovery mission.
Ashland Radar Station was a United States Air Force station located in Ashland, Maine operational from around 1975 to 1990. Sitting on 6.59 acres (2.67 ha).
radar station 