PAVE PAWS

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PAVE Phased Array Warning System
military structures[1]:{{{3}}}
PAVE PAWS Cape Cod AFS 1986.jpg
The Cape Cod AFS AN/FPS-115 (white structure with circular array) on 1 October 1986 was 1 of 2 while two more FPS-115s were being built. At the beginning of the Cold War, the Cape Cod landform had a Permanent System radar station (1951 North Truro AFS), and the offshore Texas Tower 2 was at George's Bank (closed 1963).
Country United States
Radar stations Massachusetts, California, Florida, Texas
System
Sites


Scanner
Buildings
Electronic Systems Division System Program Office: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (in MA)

Raytheon Equipment Division: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (MA)[2]
East Coast: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Cape Cod (6SWS)
West Coast: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. CA (7SWS)
Southeast: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. GA (9SWS)
Southwest: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. TX (8MWS)

Prime Contractor[4]:{{{3}}}
Software[5]:{{{3}}}
Construction
subcontractors
Raytheon Equipment Division (named April 1977)[3]:{{{3}}}
IBM Federal Systems
Gilbane Construction Company (MA)[4]:{{{3}}}
tbd (CA)
tbd (GA)
tbd (TX)
Ground-breaking
Operational
Expanded
Reduced
Replaced
1976 October 27
1980 August 15
1984[1]:{{{3}}}-7
1995 (GA, TX closed)
c. 1990–2001

The PAVE Phased Array Warning System (PAVE PAWS) Cold War system of computer and radar equipment was developed "to detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States".[6]:{{{3}}} With the "first solid-state phase-scanned array deployed",[7] the system at the perimeter of the contiguous United States used a pair of Raytheon AN/FPS-115 Radar Sets at each site[8]:{{{3}}} (2 sites in 1980, then 2 more used 1987–95) as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network.

Background

1986 operator and AN/FPS-115 console.

Fixed-reflector radars with mechanically-scanned beams such as the 1955 GE AN/FPS-17 Fixed Ground Radar and 1961 RCA AN/FPS-50 Radar Set were deployed for missile tracking, and the USAF tests of modified AN/FPS-35 mechanical radars at Virginia and Pennsylvania SAGE radar stations had "marginal ability" to detect Cape Canaveral missiles in summer 1962.[8]:{{{3}}} A Falling Leaves mechanical radar in New Jersey built for BMEWS successfully tracked a missile during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and "an AN/FPS-85 long-range phased array (Passive electronically scanned array) radar was constructed at Eglin AFB"[8]:{{{3}}} Site C-6, Florida[9] beginning on 29 October 1962[10] (the Bendix Radio Division's[11] FPS-85 contract had been signed 2 April 1962.)[12] Early military phased array radars were also deployed for testing: Bendix AN/FPS-46 Electronically Steerable Array Radar (ESAR)[6]:{{{3}}} at Towson, MD[13] (powered up in November 1960),[14] White Sands' Multi-function Array Radar (1963), and the Kwajalein Missile Site Radar (1967).[15]

Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Detection and Warning System

The Avco 474N Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) Detection and Warning System (SLBMD&W System)[5]:{{{3}}} was deployed as "an austere…interim line-of-sight system" after approval in July 1965[16]:{{{3}}} to modify some Air Defense Command (ADC) Avco AN/FPS-26 Frequency Diversity Radars into Avco AN/FSS-7 SLBM Detection Radars. The 474N sites planned for 1968 also were to include AN/GSQ-89 data processing equipment (for synthesizing tracks from radar returns), as well as site communications equipment that NORAD requested on 10 May 1965 to allow "dual full period dedicated data circuits" to the Cheyenne Mountain 425L System, which was "fully operational" on 20 April 1966.[16]:{{{3}}} (Cheyenne Mountain Complex relayed 474N data to "SAC, the National Military Command Center, and the Alternate NMCC over BMEWS circuits",[17] for presentation by Display Information Processors—impact ellipses and "threat summary display" with a count of incoming missiles[18] and "Minutes Until First Impact" countdown.)[19]

By December 1965 NORAD decided to use the Project Space Track "phased-array radar at Eglin AFB…for SLBM surveillance on an “on-call” basis"[20] "at the appropriate DEFCON".[21] By June 1966 the refined FPS-85 plan was for it "to have the capability to operate in the SLBM mode simultaneously [sic] [interlaced transmissions] with the Spacetrack surveillance and tracking modes"[16]:{{{3}}} Rebuilding of the "separate faces for transmitting and receiving" began in 1967[4]:{{{3}}} after the under-construction Eglin FPS-85 was "almost totally destroyed by fire on 5 January 1965".[22]:{{{3}}} FPS-85 IOC was in 1969,[23]:{{{3}}} 474N interim operations began in July 1970 (474N IOC was 5 May 1972),[5]:{{{3}}} and in 1972 20% of Eglin FPS-85 "surveillance capability…became dedicated to search for SLBMs,[24] and new SLBM software was installed in 1975.[14]:{{{3}}} (the FPS-85 was expanded in 1974.)[4]:{{{3}}}

The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex with North Dakota phased arrays (four-face Missile Site Radar and single-face GE Perimeter Acquisition Radar, PAR) became operational in 1975 as part of the Safeguard Program for defending against enemy ballistic missiles.

Development

1986 Cape Cod PAVE PAWS computer room with 4 hard disk units (foreground).[4]:{{{3}}}

The SLBM Phased Array Radar System (SPARS)[lower-alpha 1] was the USAF program initiated In November 1972 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)[3]:{{{3}}} while the Army's PAR was under construction. A 1974 SPARS proposal for "two new SLBM Phased Array Warning Radars" was submitted to replace the east/west coast 474N detection radars, which had "limitations against Soviet SLBMs, particularly the longer range SS-N-8"[26] on 1973 "Delta" class submarines.[4]:{{{3}}} Development began in August 1973,[27] SPARS was renamed[lower-alpha 2] PAVE PAWS on 18 February 1975,[28]:{{{3}}}:37 and system production was requested by a 13 June 1975 Request for Proposals (RFP).[6]:{{{3}}} Rome Air Development Center (RADC) "was responsible for the design, fabrication installation, integration test, and evaluation of" PAVE PAWS (through 1980).[6]

The differing USAF AN/FPS-109 Cobra Dane phased array radar in Alaska achieved IOC on 13 July 1977[5]:{{{3}}} for "providing intelligence on Soviet test missiles fired at the Kamchatka peninsula from locations in southwestern Russia".[8]:{{{3}}} The Safeguard PAR station that closed in 1976, had its radar "modified for the ADCOM mission during 1977 [and] ADCOM accepted [the Concrete Missile Early Warning Station] from the Army on 3 October 1977"[5]:{{{3}}} for "SLBM surveillance of Arctic Ocean areas".[33]:{{{3}}} By December 1977 RADC had developed[6]:{{{3}}} the 322 watt PAVE PAWS "solid state transmitter and receiver module",[3]:{{{3}}} and the System Program Office (ESD/OCL) issued the AN/FPS-115 "System Performance Specification …SS-OCLU-75-1A" on 15 December 1977.[34] IBM's PAVE PAWS "beam-steering and pulse schedules from the CYBER-174" duplexed computers to the MODCOMP IV duplexed radar control computers were "based upon" PARCS program(s) installed for attack characterization in 1977 when the USAF received the Army's PAR.[3]:{{{3}}} Bell Labs enhanced[clarification needed] the PARCS beginning December 1978, e.g., "extending the range"[5]:{{{3}}} by 1989 for the Enhanced PARCS configuration (EPARCS).

Environmental and health concerns

USAF environmental assessments in August 1975 and March 1976 for PAVE PAWS were followed by the EPA's Environmental Impact Analysis in December 1977.[3]:{{{3}}} The USAF requested the National Research Council (in May 1978) and a contractor, SRI International (April 1978), to assess PAVE PAWS radiation.[3]:{{{3}}} Two NRC reports were prepared (1979,[23]:{{{3}}} tbd), SRI's Environmental Impact Statement was reviewed during a 22 January 1979 public hearing at the Sandwich MA high school auditorium (~300 people).[28]:{{{3}}} The studies found no elevated cancer risk from PAVE PAWS[35] e.g., elevated Ewing's Sarcoma rates were not supported by 2005 available data[36] (a December 2007 MA Department of Health report concluded it "appears unlikely that PAVE PAWS played a primary role in the incidence of Ewing family of tumors on Cape Cod.")[37] A followup to a 1978 Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine report[38] concluded in 2005 that power densities beyond 15 metres (49.2 ft) were within permissible exposure limits.[39] Consistent with other regulations to prevent interference with aircraft systems, the FAA restricts aircraft at altitudes below Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). to maintain 1 nm (1.85 km)from the Cape Cod SSPARS phased array.[40]

Deployment

PAVE PAWS and BMEWS coverage

The 1st Raytheon AN/FPS-115 Radar Sets were controlled by PAVE PAWS computers to have a "3 dB Beam Width" of 2.2 deg[41] and had 27 October 1976 "ground-breaking ceremonies" at the East Coast Site.[28]:{{{3}}} The East Coast site had been announced as Otis Air Force Base on 26 May (Beale Air Force Base was announced as the West Coast site),[42] then Raytheon was contracted on 23 May.[43] After first energized (Otis' south face for 1.5 hours on 3–4 April 1978 ), System Performance Testing at "the Otis AFB PAVE PAWS facility" was completed 16 January 1979.[28]:{{{3}}} To mitigate interference at the FPS-115 site on Flatrock Hill[44] from the Cape & Islands Emergency Medical Service (EMS), on 8 February 1979 ESD installed six high pass filters—then Raytheon was contracted 24 May to move the EMS Repeater Station to Bourne, Massachusetts (completed 13 July).[28]:{{{3}}} After a 5–7 March "final review of the East Coast PAVE PAWS EIS was held at Hq AFSC", the site was accepted by ESD on 12 April.[28]:{{{3}}} The "first radio frequency transmission" from the West Coast Site was 23 March 1979[28]:{{{3}}} (it was completed in October 1979.)[45]:{{{3}}} "ADCOM wanted four [PAVE PAWS] sites, but by the end of 1979 only two had been funded".[5]:{{{3}}}

A close up of the face of the phased array radar in Cape Cod.

Initial operating capability was in 1980: "Cape Cod Missile Early Warning Station" on 4 April with IOT&E completed 21 May;[5]:{{{3}}} Beale AFB IOC on 15 August.[1] and Otis Also in 1980, the 2 PAVE PAWS, 3 BMEWS, and the PARCS & FPS-85 radar stations transferred to Strategic Air Command (then Space Command in 1983.)[23]:{{{3}}} By 1981 Cheyenne Mountain was providing 6,700 messages per hour[46] including those based on input from the PAVE PAWS and the remaining FSS-7 stations.[47]:{{{3}}} Also in 1981 as part of the Worldwide Military Command and Control System Information System (WIS), The Pentagon's National Military Command Center was receiving data "directly from the Satellite Early Warning System (SEWS) and directly from the PAVE PAWS sensor systems".[47] Beam Steering Unit (BSU) and Receiver Beam Former (REX) replacements were replaced on the 4 Cape Cod/Beale radars in the 1980s.[48]

Expansion

The PAVE PAWS Expansion Program[28]:{{{3}}} had begun by February 1982 to replace "older FPS-85 and FSS-7 SLBM surveillance radars in Florida with a new PAVE PAWS radar to provide improved surveillance of possible SLBM launch areas southeast of the United States [and for another] to the Southwest.[33] After a 3 June 1983 RFP, Raytheon Company was contracted on 10 November and had a 22–23 February 1984 System Design Review for the Southeast and Southwest radars.[28]:{{{3}}} The Expansion's Development Test and Engineering testing commenced on 3 February 1986 at the Southeast Site (PAVE PAWS Site 3, Robins Air Force Base--completed 5 June) and 15 August at the Southwest Site (PAVE PAWS Site 4, Eldorado Air Force Station).[28]:{{{3}}} The Gulf Coast FPS-115s were operational in 1986 (Robins)[8]:{{{3}}} and May 1987 (Eldorado IOC).[1]:{{{3}}} In February 1995, all 4 radars were being netted by the "missile warning center at Cheyenne Mountain AS [which was] undergoing a $450 million upgrade program".[49] Other centers receiving PAVE PAWS output were the 19xx Missile Correlation Center and 19xx Space Control Center.[citation needed]

During the End of Cold War draw down, the Eldorado and Robins radar stations closed in 1995,[50] and an AN/FPS-115 was sold to Taiwan in 2000[51] (installed at Loshan or Leshan Mountain, Tai'an, Miaoli[52] in 2006,[53] commissioned 2013.)[54] By October 1999, Cape Cod and Beale radars were providing data via Jam Resistant Secure Communication (JRSC) circuits to the Command Center Processing and Display System in the NMCC.[31]:{{{3}}} The transition of BMEWS and PAVE PAWS to SSPARS had begun with the 4 AN/FPS-50 BMEWS radars near Thule Air Force Base being replaced with a Raytheon AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased Array Radar at Thule Site J (operational "2QFY87").[55]

Replacement

The AN/FPS-120 at Clear AFS, Alaska, was completed in 2001 with portions of the AN/FPS-115 radar from Eldorado AFS that closed in 1995, e.g., both "transmitter/receiver arrays", as well as some "cabinets and computers"[56]-- saving $140 million (the deployment cost $106 million).

The Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) began replacing PAVE PAWS when the first AN/FPS-115 face was taken off-line for the radar upgrade. New Raytheon AN/FPS-123 Early Warning Radars became operational in 19xx (Beale) and 19xx (Cape Cod) in each base's existing PAVE PAWS "Scanner Building".[4]:{{{3}}} RAF Fylingdales, UK and Clear Air Force Station, Alaska BMEWS stations became SSPARS radar stations when their respective AN/FPS-126 radar (3 faces)[57] and 2001 Raytheon AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased Array Radar became operational.[56]:{{{3}}} In 2007, 100 owners/trustees of amateur radio repeaters in the 420 to 450 MHz band near AN/FPS-123 radars were notified to lower their power output to mitigate interference,[58] and AN/FPS-123s were part of the Air Force Space Surveillance System by 2009.[59] The Beale AN/FPS-123 was upgraded to a Boeing AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) in [(tbd)] with capabilities to operate in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) ABM system—the Beale UEWR included Avionics, Transmit-Receive modules,[29] Receiver Exciter / Test Target Generator, Beam Steering Generator, Signal Processor, and other changes.[60] After additional UEWR installations for GMD at Thule Site J and the UK (contracted 2003[43]), a 2012 ESD/XRX Request for Information for replacement, and remote operation, of the remaining "PAVE PAWS/BMEWS/PARCS systems" at Cape Cod, Alaska, and North Dakota was issued.[48]:{{{3}}} The Alaska AN/FPS-132 was contracted in fall 2012[61] and in 2013, the U.S. announced a plan to sell an AN/FPS-132 to Qatar.[62]

See also

  • Dunay radar, a UHF radar with a similar function and era of development.
  • Voronezh radar, the latest post Soviet-era Russian equivalent.

Notes

  1. PAVE PAWS was one of the earliest large USAF Support Systems not developed with a 3 digit number and an appended letter, such as the preceding 474N SLBM system and the "Big L" systems that included the Burroughs "425L Command/Control and Missile Warning" ("fully operational" at Cheyenne Mountain on 20 April 1966[16]:{{{3}}}) and the "496L Spacetrack" systems[25] which networked PAVE PAWS. <-- End of footnote -->
  2. The PAVE identifier used when PAVE PAWS was designated on 18 February 1975[28]:{{{3}}}:37 was "a code word for the Air Force unit in charge of the project" and which developed other PAVE systems--"CF" the unit for "the COBRA system" with[8]:{{{3}}} the Cobra Dane (AN/FPS-108) radar. By 1979, PAVE systems used the term Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry defined for the identifier, e.g., the 1980 PAVE Pillar[29] and c. 1977[6]:{{{3}}} Pave Mover (JSTARS) programs initiated by the USAF.[30] In particular, on 1 October 1999 the Department of the Air Force identified PAVE PAWS as "Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry Phased Array Warning System",[31] a term publicized as early as 1979.[32] <-- End of footnote -->

References

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  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (PAVE PAWS concept drawing on p. 141)
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  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (transcription available at the Federation of American Scientists website)
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  24. Jane's Radar and Electronic Systems, 6th edition, Bernard Blake, ed. (1994), p. 31 [cited by Winkler]
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  29. 29.0 29.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[not in citation given]
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  34. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (cited by ADA088323)
  35. [dead link]Cape radar found not to pose health risk Accessed 5 November 2007
  36. National Academies' National Research Council. Available Data Do Not Show Health Hazard to Cape Cod Residents From Air Force PAVE PAWS Radar. January 2005.
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  40. FAA – SNY – New York – Sectional Aeronautical Chart Edition 86 – 15 Nov 2012
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External links

External images
image icon rear of Scanner Building
image icon element diagram with subarrays (p. 18 Fig. 4)
image icon interior of Beale Scanner Building
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