PAVE PAWS

PAVE Phased Array Warning System
Massachusetts, California, Florida and Texas in United States
The Cape Cod Space Force Station 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).
TypeRadar station

PAVE PAWS (PAVE Phased Array Warning System) is a complex Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to "detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States".[1] The first solid-state phased array deployed[2] used a pair of Raytheon AN/FPS-115 phased array radar sets at each site[3] to cover an azimuth angle of 240 degrees. Two sites were deployed in 1980 at the periphery of the contiguous United States, then two more in 1987–95 as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. One system was sold to Taiwan and is still in service.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference SmithByrd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Brookner, Eli (1 May 1997). "Major Advances in Phased Arrays: Part 1". The Microwave Journal. Horizon House Publications. diameter of 102 feet for a total of approximately 5300 elements. The elements in this outer ring beyond the 72.5 feet are reserved for a future 10 dB increase in system sensitivity.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Winkler1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).