This is a neat site on the BMEWS, but there is also other stuff on the site. If you go to the site check out the link to the undergrund bunkers while you're there.

Tim

Enjoyed the Aleutians did you. I have heard that there are interesting artifacts left from the Japanese occupation. Is this true?

Operator, although the COBRA DANE system may be under the same command structure as the BMEWS, it has a different mission.

COBRA DANE is used to collect intelligence in Russian and North Korean ballistic missile test. It is an L-band phased array radar used to track MIRVs as they re-enter the earth's atmosphere. This system is used in concert with the COBRA EYE and COBRA JUDY intelligence gathering platforms.

COBRA EYE (which replaced COBRA BALL) is an RC-135 equipped with a 3-color IR telescope, which can focus in on re-entering MIRVs at great distances. IR intelligence and data about decoys, heat shields, and so forth can then be gathered. Like COBRA DANE, the COBRA EYE aircraft are based in Shemya, AK.

COBRA JUDY is a US Navy auxilliary ship (ex-cargo ship) equipped with an S-band phased array (COBRA JUDY) radar and an X-band measurement radar. The ship is based out of Pearl Harbor, and is deployed to the Sea of Japan to observe Russian and North Korean missile shots. The COBRA JUDY ship is an important part of the US's Treaty Compliance program, as it makes measurements accurate enough to determine missile throw weight, CEP accuracy, number of warheads, and warhead size.

All three systems work in concert with each other during missile shots, but the COBRA DANE is usually the first system to actually "see" the missile and it's MIRV bus coming over the earth's horizon. It can then disseminate the estimated impact poin to the COBRA EYE and COBRA JUDY so they can position themselves and their systems in order to gain better coverage of the returing MIRVs.

With the lack of Russian missile shots over the last 5-10 years, the system may be getting ready for mothballs, although we can also use it to measure our own shots from Vandenburg AFB that come down near Kwaj.

BlueTwo - Enjoyed the Aleutians did you. I have heard that there are interesting artifacts left from the Japanese occupation.

Yeah. I heard the same. Didnt do a full tour so didnt
get to explore much. Volunteered to fill in for a bad
manpower crunch and was super lucky on transport,
otherwise would have been stuck for a while. Finished
my tour at Clear. <== The WW II artifacts there are all US Army.
Neet stuff those range camps.

/\/ight\/\/ing

Very informative Pyros! Thanks!
Nightwing & BlueTwo; aleutians?

Nightwing & BlueTwo; aleutians? - operatoreleven

Uh....dont you read your own links ?

Shemya is an island in the balmy tropical Aleutians.


/\/ight\/\/ing

Is harrp not located in Alaska?

Deep