FPS-115

From FortWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

FPS-115 Long-Range Missile Detection Radar Set - A Long-Range Missile Detection Radar set built by Raytheon in the late 1970s. Designed to detect sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). Deployed in a system called Pave Paws.

The initial concept had two FPS-115 systems deployed in the continental United States in 1980, one on the east coast at Cape Cod AFS and one on the west coast at Beale AFB. The concept expanded in the mid-1980s with two more sites, one at Dobbins AFB Georgia and one at Eldorado AFS, Texas. Coincident with the end of the Cold War both of the later sites were closed in 1995. The equipment at Eldorado AFS, was relocated to Clear AFS, Alaska to replace the FPS-50.

Additional FPS-115 Pave Paws radars were installed in the 1990s at BMEWS sites at Thule, Greenland, and Fylingdale Moor, England.

Pave Paws Computer Maintenance Operations Center, showing duplexed cyber 170-174 computers
Beale AFB Pave Paws Radar Antenna Elements.

FPS-115 Missile Detection Radar

FPS-115 Missile Detection Radar
Element Value Notes
Nomenclature FPS-115
Origins
Variants FPS-120
FPS-123
FPS-132
Manufacturer Raytheon
Type Missile Detection
Number Made 4
IEEE Band UHF
Frequency 420-450 MHz
PRF .02 to 20 Hz
Pulse Width 250 to 16,000 us
Rotation Speed Phased Arrays
Power 600kw
150kw
Peak (per face}
Average
Range 3,000nmi~ Long Range
Altitude
Introduced 1979
FPS-115 Radar Building
FPS-115 Missile Detection Radar Variants
Site Faces FPS-115 FPS-120 FPS-121 FPS-123 FPS-126 FPS-132 Notes
Beale 2 4 Apr 1980  ??? FY14
Cape Cod 2 15 Aug 1980  ??? FY16
Thule 2 2QFY87 FY14
Flyingdales 3 1992 FY14
Clear 2 31 Jan 2001  ??? FY16 From Dobbins
Eldorado 2 1987-1995 To Clear AFS
Dobbins 2 1986-1995 Closed


See Also:

Sources:

  • Winkler, David F., Searching the Skies: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, USAF Hq Air Combat Command, 1997, 192 pages, Pdf, page 54-56, 86, 105, 111, 122, 158.

Links:


Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
content
Toolbox