The Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands is a U.S. naval facility and

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

located five

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s (9 km) northwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

of Kekaha, in

Kauai County, Hawaii Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the List of islands of the United States by area, 21st-largest ...

, United States. PMRF is the world's largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range. The

US military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

and its

contractors A contractor (North American English) or builder (British English), is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the c ...

favor its relative isolation, ideal year-round

tropical climate Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of or higher in the coolest month, featuring hot te ...

and encroachment-free environment (see PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative below). It is the only range in the world where

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

surface ship Surface combatants (or surface ships or surface vessels) are a subset of naval warships which are designed for warfare on the surface of the water, with their own weapons and armed forces. They are generally ships built to fight other ships, subma ...

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

and

space vehicle A space vehicle is the combination of a spacecraft and its launch vehicle which carries it into space. The earliest space vehicles were expendable launch systems, using a single or multistage rocket to carry a relatively small spacecraft in ...

s can operate and be tracked simultaneously. There are over of instrumented underwater range and over of

controlled airspace Controlled airspace is airspace of defined dimensions within which air traffic control (ATC) services are provided. The level of control varies with different airspace class, classes of airspace. Controlled airspace usually imposes higher weat ...

. The base itself covers roughly . The base includes a runway with operations and maintenance facilities. It has roughly 70 housing units and various recreational facilities for those who can access the base. The base has support facilities at Port Allen, Makaha Ridge, and Koke'e State Park. The base also uses a portion of the nearby island of

Niihau Niihau (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Niihau ( ), is the seventh largest island in Hawaii and the westernmost of the main islands. It is southwest of Kauai, Kauai across the Channels of the Hawaiian Islands#Kaulakahi Channel, Ka ...

for a remotely operated APS-134 surveillance

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

, an Test Vehicle Recovery Site, the Perch Electronic Warfare site, multiple EW Portable Simulator sites, and a Helicopter Terrain Flight training course.

History

In 1921, the land area known as the Barking Sands was acquired by the Kekaha Sugar Company and became a runway for private planes. In 1928

Charles Kingsford Smith Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. Kingsford Smith was ...

, a record-setting Australian aviator, took off with his four-man crew from a sandy runway here to fly non-stop to Fiji. They had arrived in Hawaii at

Wheeler Army Airfield Wheeler Army Airfield , also known as Wheeler Field and formerly as Wheeler Air Force Base, is a United States Army post located in the City & County of Honolulu and in the Wahiawa District of the Island of O'ahu, Hawaii. It is a National H ...

, but left from Barking Sands as Wheeler was not long enough to take off with their heavy load. The

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

acquired the land in 1940, named it Mana Airport, and paved the runway. Additional land acquired in 1941 expanded the facility to . Private airlines frequently utilized the airport, and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

incurred a great deal of military flight operations. The base was officially designated Bonham Air Force Base in 1954. U.S. Navy operations at Bonham began in 1956, with testing of the Regulus I missile. In 1958, the Pacific Missile Range Facility was established to support the growing demand of the Navy at Bonham. In 1964, the Pacific Missile Range Facility and Bonham was transferred to the Navy, becoming Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands.

Missile tests

In 1962, the U.S. military conducted the Frigate Bird Test of the

Operation Dominic Operation Dominic was a series of 31 nuclear test explosions ("shots") with a total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the Pacific. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet resumption of t ...

program near PMRF. The military launched an operational

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...

with a live warhead from the , which was situated near PMRF. The

nuclear warhead A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

flew toward

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an States and territories of Australia#External territories, Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is about south o ...

and detonated in an

air burst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

at . The Navy is currently using PMRF to test "hit to kill" technology using direct collision of the

anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to Missile defense, destroy in-flight ballistic missiles. They achieve this explosively (chemical or nuclear), or via hit-to-kill Kinetic projectile, kinetic vehicles, which ma ...

with its target. This destroys the target by using only

kinetic energy In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion. In classical mechanics, the kinetic energy of a non-rotating object of mass ''m'' traveling at a speed ''v'' is \fracmv^2.Resnick, Rober ...

from the force of the collision. The two

Missile Defense Agency The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is a component of the Federal government of the United States, United States government's United States Department of Defense, Department of Defense responsible for developing a comprehensive Missile defense, defe ...

programs that currently utilize the range at PMRF are the Navy's

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System The Aegis ballistic missile defense system (Aegis BMD or ABMD), also known as ''Sea-Based Midcourse'', is a Missile Defense Agency program under the United States Department of Defense developed to provide missile defense against short and inte ...

and the Army's

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in th ...

System, or THAAD. The THAAD program relocated their testing operations from the

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and conducted its first demonstration at PMRF on 26 January 2007. On 27 April 2007, the U.S. military's sea-based missile defense system, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, showed it could intercept two targets simultaneously when it destroyed a

cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...

and a

short-range ballistic missile A short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of to . In past and potential regional conflicts, these missiles have been and would be used because of the short distances between some countries and their relative low c ...

during a test off the

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

an island of Kauai. The test marked eight out of ten times the

and U.S. Navy's Aegis missile defense system successfully intercepted its target, but was the first time the system knocked out two targets at the same time.

PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative

The Navy is currently working with the

State of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and Kauai County to ensure the long-term viability of PMRF. For many decades, the land adjacent to PMRF was used for

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

fields, which was wholly compatible with operations at PMRF. Since Kekaha Sugar's closure, the Navy has become wary of "encroachment", incompatible developments, that might occur on the land next to the base. In order to ensure that PMRF can continue to safely conduct important research and training operations in the future, the Navy and some citizens of Kauai are seeking to permanently preserve the land adjacent to PMRF for

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

purposes. Under the PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative the Navy would have the roughly of land adjacent to PMRF preserved solely for agricultural use. Although the Navy has stated that it would like to lease about of land, it has also stated that its main goal is not to purchase more land but to merely ensure the land continues to be used for agricultural purposes.

Operational deployment of THAAD

When North Korea threatened to launch

Taepodong-2 The Taepodong-2 (TD-2, also spelled as Taep'o-dong 2)
Federation of American Scientists, May 30, 2008 () is a ...

ICBMs toward Hawaii in 2009, the US temporarily deployed a

THAAD Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in th ...

missile unit to the facility.

Range programs

The range hosted the following programs:''Missiles and Rockets''
November 21, 1960, p. 14. * Able III & IV * ADTS *

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

* Bullpup (A) & (B) * Caleb Satellite *

Centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...

* Composite Radiation Satellite * Corvus I * Courier * Discoverer * Dyna-Soar *

Eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

Hawk Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are very widely distributed and are found on all continents, except Antarctica. The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks, and others. This ...

* Hummingbird * Hydra * Hyperjet * Jaguar (Probe) * Mach 2 Expendable Target * Mach 2 Recoverable Target * Mercury * Midas * Minuteman * MORT (Fleet Training) * NERV * Nike-Zeus * NORT (Fleet Training) * Ozarc * Pershing * Phoenix * Regulus I * Rella * Samos-Atlas * Scout *

Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

* Sidewinder * Sparrow III * Sunflare *

Talos In Greek mythology, Talos, also spelled Talus (; , ''Tálōs'') or Talon (; , ''Tálōn''), was a man of bronze who protected Crete from pirates and invaders. Despite the popular idea that he was a giant, no ancient source states this explicitl ...

* Tartar * Tepee * Terrier I *

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

* Tiros *

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

* Tophat * Transit * Tumbleweed *

Typhon Typhon (; , ), also Typhoeus (; ), Typhaon () or Typhos (), was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. However, one source has Typhon as t ...

Notes

References

* *

External links

Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands
official website

* at NavyUSA.org

at

GlobalSecurity.org GlobalSecurity.org is an American independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that serves as a think tank, and research and consultancy group. Focus The site is focused on national and international security issues; military analysis, sys ...

* {{Authority control 1940 establishments in Hawaii Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Hawaii Airports in Hawaii Buildings and structures in Kauai County, Hawaii Guided missiles Installations of the United States Navy in Hawaii Kauai Military airbases established in 1940 Missile defense Rocket launch sites in the United States