Thule Site J

Thule Site J (J-Site) is a United States Space Force (USSF) radar station in Greenland near Thule Air Base for missile warning and spacecraft tracking. The northernmost station of the Solid State Phased Array Radar System, the military installation was built as the 1st site of the RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System and had 5 of 12 BMEWS radars. The station has the following structures:
* "EWR facility": structure with a Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS) phased array radar
* BMEWS radar buildings: 3 of the 4 former AN/FPS-50 buildings, 1 AN/FPS-49A building
* Support structures: e.g., buildings with telecommunication equipment at the station's "support site" (cf. "technical site" with radar)—15 major structures were complete in 1961 (i.e., Bldg 98 which was for the original BRCS)

History

BMEWS General Operational Requirement 156 was issued on November 7, 1957 (BMEWS had originally been "designed to go with the active portion of the WIZARD system") and on February 4, 1958; the USAF informed Air Defense Command (ADC) that BMEWS was an "all-out program" and was "...being placed on the Department of Defense master urgency list." On January 14, 1958, the US announced its "decision to establish a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System" with Thule to be operational in 1959—total Thule and Clear Air Force Station costs in a May 1958 estimate were ~$800 million (an October 13, 1958, plan for both estimated completion in September 1960.)

A World War II ship (freighter) operated by the Burns & Roe company originally provided the Site J electrical and heating supplies until a powerplant was constructed years later, and water was from Thule AB via a branch to the site.

Construction

Kiewit was contracted for heavy construction (e.g., the AN/FPS-50 reflector foundations and tunnels between transmitter buildings), and construction began in May 1958 (a trial reflector installation failed due to ordinary carbon steel bolts instead of 1.5% chrome steel.) The maintenance building with electric heat was the first building complete; and the four AN/FPS-50 reflectors with 25-ton foundations were complete by August 8, 1959 ("two pedestals for trackers" were built for deferred radars.) After the July 13, 1959, treaty No. 5045 with Canada regarding intermediate sites

the Western Electric BMEWS Rearward Communications System (BRCS) was established between the "switchboard at Thule and the BMEWS Project Office in New York City"—a similar line between Thule and Massachusetts used a summer 1959 "submarine cable... between Thule and Cape Dyer" ("BMEWS Rearward Long-Lines System" stations were at CFS Resolution Island (see also
DEWDROP_Tropospheric_Scatter_AM_Communications_Link_between_Thule_BMEWS_and_Cape_Dyer
").html" ;"title="Cape Dyer">DEWDROP Tropospheric Scatter AM Communications Link between Thule BMEWS and Cape Dyer
")">Cape Dyer">DEWDROP Tropospheric Scatter AM Communications Link between Thule BMEWS and Cape Dyer
")/ref> & CFS Saglek.) President Dwight D. Eisenhower was notified on April 23, 1960 of "construction work at Thule on schedule [and that] all technical buildings have been accepted and emplacement of the electronic components is underway nderection of the four radar antennas was completed", and radar testing began on May 16, 1960—a simplex vacuum tube IBM 709 used as the prototype Missile Impact Predictor (MIP) occupied 2 floor

(duplex IBM-709-TX solid-state computers of the AN/FSQ-28 Missile Impact Predictor Set were later installed in Building 2.) To predict when parts "might break down", the contractor also installed a "Checkout Data Processo

-RCA 501 computer

with 32k "high speed memory", 5-76KC 556 bpi 3/4" tape drives, & 200 track random access Low-frequency effects, LFE drums. The initial radar transmission from one of the scanner buildings was in August 196

RCA operations

On the same date as the BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility in the continental United States, "at midnight on 30 September 1960 BMEWS Site I"achieved initial operational capability", and a "shakedown" period followed which used the simplex MIP and voice transmission of data to the Colorado Springs' CC&DF.

;False alarms:On October 5, 1960, when Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, was in New York, radar returns during Thule moonrise produced a false alarm (on January 20, 1961, CINCNORAD approved 2-second FPS-50 frequency hoping to eliminate reception of echoes beyond artificial satellite orbits.) On November 24, 1961, an AT&T operator error at their Black Forest Microwave Station northeast of Colorado Springs caused a BMEWS communications outage to the Ent AFB CC&DF and its output to Strategic Air Command (a nearby B-52's overflight confirmed Site J had not been attacked.)

The BRCS undersea cable from Greenland had been cut "presumably by fishing trawlers" in September, October, and November 1961 (the BMEWS teletype and backup SSB substituted)-- Hard Head

missions for continual monitoring commenced in 196

(the Bomb Alarm System had been installed at the Thule and Clear BMEWS sites by 10 February 1961. After local interference (e.g., "cranes and floor waxers") and equipment problems were mitigated and a 72-hour test verified "the automatic rearward data transmission" (BRCS), the 1961 "authorization to begin fully automatic operation; effective 2400 hours GMT 31 January, was issued" "Lt. Col. Harry J. Wills as thesenior air force officer on the project at Thule" on January 3, 1961 ("BMEWS deputy program director" by 1964—he was reassigned from the BMEWS SPO to the "Space Track SP

on February 14, 1964.)

Air Defense Command

Thule operations transferred from civilian contractors (RCA Government Services) to Air Defense Command on January 5, 1962; and 1962 sinkholes formed in the drainage ditch at "Scanner 6

By mid-1962, BMEWS "quick fixes" for Electronic counter-countermeasures, ECCM had been installed for Thule "to recognize when it was being jammed."

An RCA AN/FPS-49A Radar Set with specialized radome for Thule weather was installed b
December 1963
and Thule multipath testing was completed by May 1964. In 1967 when the system cost totalled $1.259 billion, BMEWS modification testing ended on May 15 ("completion of the BMEWS"); and the Bomb Alarm System caused a false alarm during the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash

(the system was deactivated in 1970.) In June 1980

Thule's FPS-49A radome by Goodyear "burnt to the ground" and was rebuilt

and a late 1960s DSCS, satellite communications terminal was moved from the Thule P-Mountain site to Site J in 1983. To replace AN/FSQ-28 predictors, a late 1970s plan for processing returns from MIRVs installed new Missile Impact Predictor computers and was complete by September 1984. After being contracted for Thule on July 29, 1983; construction of an AN/FPS-120 Early Warning Radar was started on November 7, 1984, the "array plate" was complete on June 26, 1985, and the 1st satellite track was on June 8, 1986.

Solid State Phased Array Radar

Thule's BMEWS radars were deactivated in June 1987. The BMEWS system at Thule had been "replaced" by the SSPARS AN/FPS-120 with "two-faced…phased array radar ompletedin 2QFY87" (January–March). with 240 degree detection arc The AN/FPS-49A was intact and in disrepair in 1996, and the antenna and radome were removed by 201

After the Danish parliament approved

Raytheon was contracted in 2005 to upgrade Thule's "Early Warning Radar" as part of the larger Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program. Intended to be ready in 2008, the installation was actually completed on June 24, 200

Thule's AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) completes about 10% of the United States' observations of Earth orbiting satellites.

References

{{Reflist , refs=

{{Cite web , title=NORAD Selected Chronology , url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/norad-chron.htm , publisher=Federation of American Scientists , access-date=2014-03-05 , quote=14 Jan 58 -- United States announced decision to establish a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (list als
at NORAD.mil
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915120606/http://www.norad.mil/about/NORAD%20History_ENGLISH.pdf , date=2012-09-15
in 2008 book
/ref>

{{cite report , last1=Del Papa , first1=Dr. E. Michael , last2=Warner , first2=Mary P , date=October 1987 , title=A Historical Chronology of the Electronic Systems Division 1947-1986 , url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a201708.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224105532/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a201708.pdf , url-status=live , archive-date=December 24, 2013 , number=ESD-TR-88-276 (AD-A201 708) , access-date=2014-03-08 , quote=7 November 984Installation of SPARSradar hardware at Site I, Thule, Greenland, for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was begun.

>

{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary , version=1962b , accessdate=2013-04-22 "'' CONAD Control Center (Thule AB, Greenland) ... During Desk Top V, an operational evaluation of the Combat Operations Center was conducted. ... At the start of the Cuban crisis, a Soviet trawler was sighted directly over the MEWS underseacable. ... BMEWS rearward communications could be substantially affected only by the simultaneous cutting of all cables.''"
{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary , version=1960 , accessdate=2014-03-20

{{Cite report , last1=Hoffecker, Whorton, & Buechler , title=Cold War Historic Properties of the 21st Space Wing , url=http://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/211543 , access-date=2014-03-20 , quote=ADC assumed control ofThule Bin 1960 ... The original radar screens were dismantled in 1987 when the site was upgraded to phased-array radar. The scanner buildings and tracking radar remain intact but are not used and have fallen into disrepair. ... Cavalier AS...approximately 67 miles north of Grand Forks, and 15 miles south of the Canada–US border, near the community of Concrete. The 278-acre installation... In 1977, the operation of the PAR Site was transferred to the Air Force ADC... After the elimination of ADC in 1979, PARCS was transferred to SAC. In 1983, the site became a part of AFSPC (and was officially redesignated Cavalier AS). The land at Cavalier is leased from the Army. ...Missile Site Radar (MSR) at Grand Forks

{{Cite report , author=Stone & Banner , title=Radars for the Detection and Tracking of Ballistic Missiles, Satellites, and Planets , url=https://archive.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no2/12_2detectsatellitiesplanets.pdf , access-date=2020-06-11 , quote=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 5–17 … 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.

{{Cite report , last1=Wainstein , first1=L. , date=June 1975 , pages=1–138 , title=The Evolution of U.S. Strategic Command and Control and Warning: Part One (1945-1953) , url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a331702.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311182410/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a331702.pdf , url-status=live , archive-date=March 11, 2014 , volume=Study S-467 , publisher=Institute for Defense Analyses , access-date=2014-03-09

Installations of the United States Air Force in Greenland
1960 in military history
Air Defense Command radar stations
Strategic Air Command radar stations
Military space program of the United States
Military installations established in 1960
1960 establishments in Greenland