Ballistic Missile Early Warning System

For preceding northern radar networks for detecting Soviet bombers, see Pinetree Line, Mid-Canada Line, and DEW Line.

Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility in United States
Sketch of Clear Air Force Station BMEWS radars.[a]
TypeRadar network
Site history
Built1958–1961[4] (complete FOC was January 15, 1964)[5]
Built byRCA 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]

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

  1. ^ "Raytheon wins Air Force Contract for Radar and Communications Sites (Press Release)". Raytheon via thefreelibrary.com. September 7, 1994.
  2. ^ "AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased-Array System [SSPARS]: Clear Radar Upgrade". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  3. ^ "Clear AFS, AK". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  4. ^ "HAER AK-30-A - Clear Air Force Station, Ballistic Missile Early Warning System Site II". Historic American Engineering Record. 2003.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference DelPapa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Spring1963 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Preface by Buss, L. H. (Director) (October 1, 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. February 16, 1960.
  10. ^ "Remembering Our Heritage 25 June - 1 July" (PDF). Office of History, Elmendorf AFB via AlaskaWingCAF.org. Retrieved November 5, 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 March 5, 2014.
  12. ^ a b Stone & Banner. Radars for the Detection and Tracking of Ballistic Missiles, Satellites, and Planets (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 12, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 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. ^ a b Bate; Mueller & White (1971) [origyear tbd]. Fundamentals of Astronautics (Google books). Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486600611. Retrieved March 5, 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 March 10, 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. ^ Cite error: The named reference Det3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Flack, John S. Jr. "Moorestowns Giant Golf Ball" (personal anecdote w/ photos). Personal web page on Homestead.com. Retrieved March 10, 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. ^ Cite error: The named reference GlobalSecurity was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  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 (November 3, 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 March 11, 2014. Retrieved March 11, 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. ^ Chapman, Bert (2008). Space Warfare and Defense: A Historical Encyclopedia and Research Guide (Google books). Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781598840063. Retrieved March 13, 2014. BMEWS was replaced by the Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) in 2001. ... CINCAD (Command in Chief, Aerospace Defense Command)


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).