Terence James Elkins

Terence James Elkins (8 March 1936 – 23 November 2023) was an Australian-born American physicist. In 1960, he participated in an expedition from Mawson Station which conducted the first geological surveys of the Napier Mountains in Enderby Land, East Antarctica. The highest of this group of mountains, Mount Elkins, was subsequently named after him. In 1979, he received the Harold Brown Award, the United States Air Force's highest honor for research and development, for research he conducted that contributed to the development of the AN/FPS-115, AN/FPS-117 and AN/FPS-118 over-the-horizon backscatter (OTH-B) air defense radar system. Designed to replace the aging Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, these systems are among the most powerful early-warning radar systems ever developed.

Education

Elkins earned his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Melbourne in 1957. He earned his master's degree in Physics and Astronomy from Boston University in 1967. He earned his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1970, publishing a thesis entitled ''Studies of Ionospheric Irregularity Using Radio Astronomical Techniques''.

Mawson Station (1960–1961)

After completion of his bachelor's degree, Elkins joined the ANARE team that wintered over at Mawson Station in Australian Antarctic Territory in 1960. The wintering party comprised 33 expeditioners including 12 members of the Antarctic Flight RAAF; the Officer-in-Charge was Hendrick Geysen. That year, Elkins was part of a 400 km sledging field party that traveled from Mawson Station to the Napier Mountains in Enderby Land. The men of this expedition, led by fellow Antarctic explorer Syd Kirkby, conducted the first geological surveys of that area of the continent. The highest of this small group of mountains, Mount Elkins, was subsequently named after Dr. Elkins. Other survey teams that year visited the Framnes Mountains, conducted geological and survey work in the Prince Charles Mountains, and visited the Emperor penguin colonies at Taylor Glacier and Fold Island.

ANARE has since been renamed the Australian Antarctic Program, managed by the Australian Antarctic Division, itself a division of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Emigration to the United States and early career

Elkins emigrated from his native Australia to the United States in 1963, at the height of the Space Race, after being recruited by the scientific research program of the United States Air Force. Beginning in the early 1960s, he conducted research focused mainly on the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, and improvements to ground, airborne, and space-based ISTAR systems, including over-the-horizon radar systems.

In addition to his work at Hanscom Air Force Base, much of his early research was also conducted at Sagamore Hill Radio Observatory, a ground-based solar observatory located in Hamilton, Massachusetts. Sagamore Hill Solar Radio Observatory is a functional component of the Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN).

In 1980, he developed and published an auroral echo-scattering model to predict the obscuration of targets when the radar transmission path is through the polar regions of Earth.

Development of the AN/FPS-118 air defence radar system

Under the universal classification system for electronic radar and tracking systems, the letters “AN” (for Army-Navy) are placed ahead of a three-letter code. The first letter of the three-letter code denotes the type of platform hosting the electronic device, where A=Aircraft; F=Fixed (land-based); S=Ship-mounted; T=Ground transportable. The second letter indicates the type of device, where P=Radar (pulsed); Q=Sonar; R=Radio. The third letter indicates the function of the radar system device, where G=Fire control; R=Receiving; S=Search; T=Transmitting. Thus, the AN/FPS-115 represents the 115th design of an Army-Navy “Fixed, Radar, Search” electronic device.

Elkins was part of a team of Rome Air Development Center (RADC) engineers that developed and constructed components for frequency modulation/continuous wave (FM/CW) radars capable of detecting and tracking objects at over-the-horizon ranges. A prototype radar was installed and evaluated on 15 September 1970. The system incorporated a Beverage array receiving antenna located at Columbia Falls Air Force Station, a high-power transmitter array located at Moscow Air Force Station, and an operations center located at Bangor International Airport. This prototype became operational on 30 October of that year. Experimental transmissions from the Maine site covered a 60° sector from 16.5° to 76.5° azimuth and from 900 to 3,300 km in range from the radar.

Based on the success of these early experiments, the United States Department of Defense proposed to deploy a fully operational radar system. This radar system, covering 180° in azimuth, was built at the same locations in Maine. Initial testing was conducted from June 1980 to June 1981. GE Aerospace (now Lockheed Martin Ocean, Radar and Sensor Systems) received a contract in mid-1982 for full-scale development of the AN/FPS-118 program.

The operational system consisted of multiple OTH-B radars functioning as an early warning system to detect incoming enemy bombers, ICBMs, and cruise missiles. The system, as initially envisioned, was to consist of four sectors:
* East Coast Sector (ECRS): facing east, including a group of three transmitters at Moscow Air Force Station, a group of three receivers at Columbia Falls Air Force Station, also in Maine, and an operations center located at Bangor International Airport.
* West Coast Sector (WCRS): facing west, including a group of three transmitters at Christmas Valley, Oregon, a group of three receivers at Tule Lake, near Alturas, California, and an operations center at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.
* North Sector (in Alaska): facing north, canceled prior to completion
* Central Sector (in Texas): facing south

Only months after the system became fully operational, the Cold War came to an end. The military requirement for the OTH-B radar network was therefore greatly diminished. The mission of the ECRS radar system was redirected to counter-narcotics surveillance and drug interdiction, and the ECRS operated in this capacity for several years. The three OTH radars of the WCRS were mothballed, and the incomplete North Sector in Alaska was canceled.

The Air Force currently maintains the six East Coast and West Coast OTH-B radars in a state called ''warm storage'', which preserves the physical and electrical integrity of the system and permits recall, should a need arise. It would require at least 24 months to bring these first-generation OTH-B radars into operational status.

Later career

Dr. Elkins spent much of his career at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts, where he conducted research at several of the tenant commands, including the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories (AFCRL) and the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory. He also conducted research at the Rome Air Development Center, located at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York. The Geophysics Laboratory is now known as the Phillips Laboratory, while the Rome Air Development Center is now known as the Rome Laboratory. Both research laboratories operate under the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC).

Throughout a career that spanned nearly five decades, Dr. Elkins' research focused on development and deployment of electronic systems for the gathering and dissemination of military intelligence, including Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I), satellite imagery, electronic warfare, and systems for remote sensing of the environment from surface, airborne, space and undersea based platforms.

After more than 20 years in research and development for the United States Air Force, he joined the Mitre Corporation in McLean, Virginia, where he continued his research for another 25 years. The majority of his work at MITRE was for the C3I Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) supporting the United States Department of Defense.

Awards and recognition

Elkins was the recipient of the 1979 Harold Brown Award. The Harold Brown Award is the Air Force's highest honor for research and development.

Publications

Elkins has published many scientific journal articles, including:

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References

Further reading

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External links

Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee (AANMC)

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)

PDF Map of the Australian Antarctic Territory

Stations of the Australian Antarctic Division: Mawson Station

Major Peaks of the Enderby Land Coast Range

MITRE Corporation Fact Sheet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elkins, Terence James
1936 births
2023 deaths
21st-century American physicists
Australian physicists
American explorers of Antarctica
Scientists from Melbourne
University of Melbourne alumni
Boston University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences alumni
Australian emigrants to the United States
Australian Antarctic scientists
Australian explorers of Antarctica