PAVE PAWS

Education by PAVE PAWS is shown in blue. In addition, the display in red for the reconnaissance area by the older Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMWS) of the US Air Force

PAVE PAWS is a military radar network system operated by the Air Force Space Command of the United States of America.

purpose

There are currently three radar systems with different capabilities and configurations in use. PAVE stands as an acronym for a US Air Force program for electronic detection systems and PAWS for P hased A rray W arning S ystem (warning system with phased array antenna ). PAVE PAWS was from the US defense contractor Raytheon developed and is used to capture and detect launches of submarine-launched ballistic missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in the Atlantic and Pacific. With this radar system, the early warning time could be significantly extended and was around 15 minutes in the early 1980s.

As a secondary mission, the PAVE PAWS system also includes the acquisition and tracking of satellites in orbit, including until 1982 for the Soviet R-36 missiles that were equipped with warheads based on the fractional orbital bombardment system .

features

These 32 meter high radar stations have a diameter of around 90 meters with circular panels arranged on two sides of a pyramid, which serve as radiation surfaces and are equipped with up to 3,600 radar antennas. The antennas work in the frequency range from 420 to 450 MHz and have a range of up to 5550 kilometers. There are several variants and upgrades of the radar stations with the designations AN / FPS-115, AN / FPS-120, AN / FPS-123 and AN / FPS-126. The most modern version is the AN / FPS-132 and is also known as the Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) and is located at Beale Air Force Base in California, the RAF Fylingdales (previously AN / FPS-126) in Great Britain and the Thule Greenland Air Base .

Active radar stations

There are currently three PAVE PAWS rocket stations in use, which are subordinate to three squadrons of the 21st Space Wing for early rocket warning and space surveillance:

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

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

Radar station at Clear Air Force Station in Alaska
Radar station at Beale Air Force Base in California (image 2010)
Radar station at Cape Cod Air Force Station in Massachusetts (image 2009)

Former radar stations

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

Former radar station at Eldorado Air Force Station in Texas

Web links

GlobalSecurity.org

Individual evidence

↑ Twenty Minutes on the Edge of Nuclear War , Der Spiegel, August 23, 1980.
↑ 12th Space Warning Squadron. United States Air Force , Peterson Air Force Base , August 16, 2012, accessed July 17, 2018 .

[1] Twenty Minutes on the Edge of Nuclear War , Der Spiegel, August 23, 1980.

[2] 12th Space Warning Squadron. United States Air Force , Peterson Air Force Base , August 16, 2012, accessed July 17, 2018 .