AN/TPS-32 was a three-dimensional, tactical long-range surveillance radar operated by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

from the early 1970s through the early 1990s. Developed by ITT Gilfillan in

Van Nuys Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1 ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, the radar was the primary sensor for the Marine Corps' Tactical Air Operations Center (TAOC) and was optimized to work in concert with the MIM-23 Hawk Missile System and the Marine Tactical Data System. In accordance with the

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

(JETDS), the "''AN/TPS-32''" designation represents the 32nd design of an Army-Navy

electronic device Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

for ground transportable search radar system. The JETDS system also now is used to name all

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

electronic systems.

Development

Development of the AN/TPS-32 began with the

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in the 1950s. It was meant to be a next generation, mobile radar capable of supporting Marine Corps forces during amphibious operations. The TPS-32 was a major improvement in radar technology for the Marine Corps. It was the service's second three dimensional radar providing range, azimuth and altitude from one array thus precluding the need for a separate

Height-finder radar A height finder is a ground-based aircraft altitude measuring device. Early height finders were optical range finder devices combined with simple mechanical computers, while later systems migrated to radar devices. The unique vertical oscillating ...

. Unlike the old mechanically scanned arrays that utilized analog technology, the TPS-32 was 90% digital,

solid-state electronics Solid-state electronics are semiconductor electronics: electronic equipment that use semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes and integrated circuits (ICs). The term is also used as an adjective for devices in which semiconductor elec ...

possessing a phased

Antenna array An antenna array (or array antenna) is a set of multiple connected antenna (radio), antennas which work together as a single antenna, to transmit or receive radio waves. The individual antennas (called ''elements'') are usually connected to a s ...

. Also new for the design of this radar was the use of three

crossed-field amplifier A crossed-field amplifier (CFA) is a specialized vacuum tube, first introduced in the mid-1950s and frequently used as a microwave amplifier in very-high-power transmitters. Raytheon engineer William C. Brown's work to adapt magnetron principle ...

s as the

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

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s in the very-high-power

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. They replaced the

cavity magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and subsequently in microwave ovens and in linear particle accelerators. A cavity magnetron generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons wit ...

s utilized on earlier radar sets. The AN/TPS-32 was delivered to Marine Air Control Squadron 3 (MACS-3) in 1969 for final operational testing. MACS-3 was re-designated as the

Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity The Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity (MCTSSA) is the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Intelligence ( C4I) Integration center for the United States Marine Corps. They are a component of ...

(MCTSSA) in 1970 and continued testing. The radar entered service in the

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in 1972. In the 1980s, the Marine Corps began to seek a replacement for both the AN/TPS-32 and MTDS. Development continued throughout the 1980s at

Marine Air Control Squadron 1 Marine Air Control Squadron 1 (MACS-1) is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control squadron. The squadron provides aerial surveillance, air traffic control, ground-controlled intercept, and aviation data-link connectivity for ...

(MACS-1). Following the

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, the TPS-32 was retired without replacement.

Units that utilized the TPS-32

* MACS-2 * MACS-4 * MACS-5 * MACS-6 * MACS-7 * MACS-24 *

References

External links

USMC Archival footage of an operational AN/TPS-32 in May 1978
{{US Marine Corps navbox Ground radars United States Marine Corps equipment Military radars of the United States Military radars of the United States Marine Corps Military equipment introduced in the 1960s Military electronics of the United States

Development

Units that utilized the TPS-32

See also

References

External links