THE MIL & AERO BLOG, 7 Feb. 2013. U.S. Air Force planners are wrapping up the first phase of what may become a long-term project to modernize and upgrade three ageing ground-based ballistic missile warning radar systems known as PAVE PAWS, BMEWS, and PARCS.
This initiative, which results from a request for information (solicitation number: 01262012) last year may lead to a project to upgrade radar front-end equipment on PAVE PAWS, BMEWS, and PARCS such as radar receivers, exciters, and beam steering units.
The size of the strategic radar systems upgrade -- if it actually comes to pass -- would depend on how much money the Air Force has to spend on it, which likely won't be much, experts say. PAVE PAWS is short for Phased Array Warning System; BMEWS is the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System; and PARCS is the Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System.
The latest step in upgrading the missile-warning radar systems, called an early engineering effort, involves an attempt by the Air Force Electronic Systems Center (ESC) at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., to identify defense companies that could oversee or contribute to systems upgrades and technology insertion on these radar systems.
ESC officials are scheduled soon to submit a report to Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., to present a status report on the condition of the radar systems, as well as to put forth options on potential upgrades and technology insertion.
If a formal industry solicitation results from this early engineering effort to upgrade PAVE PAWS, BMEWS, and PARCS, it mostly likely would not be issued for perhaps more than a year, experts say. A solicitation most likely would come from Air Force Materiel Command at Hanscom.
Should the Air Force move ahead with a major upgrade initiative for the strategic radar systems, it would involve technology refresh for the front-end and remoting capabilities.
The PARCS upgrade project may require technology insertion for the back-end processing capabilities that will support front-end modernization. PAVE PAWS and BMEWS will have received significant upgrades to their data- and signal-processing subsystems by 2016 in separate efforts.
One contractor familiar with the systems says component failures are happing in the old radar systems "left, right, and center." The central issue with the radars, however, involves component obsolescence rather than component and subsystem failures.
One expert familiar with the systems says PAVE PAWS, BMEWS, and PARCS sites "are still in really shape. They are built like tanks." To date, the ITT Exelis Electronic Systems segment in Clifton, N.J., is the prime sustainment and modernization contractor for these radar systems.
PAVE PAWS is a ground-based radar system that provides U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb., with warning and attack-assessment information on all intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launched throughout the world that might be headed for U.S. territory.
BMEWS, meanwhile, is a ground-based radar system that helps warn USSTRATCOM and NATO authorities of submarine- and sea-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) attacks and provides data to help evaluate the severity of ballistic missile attacks.
PARCS is a large radar installation in North Dakota that provides ballistic missile warning and attack assessment, as well as space surveillance data to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., as well as to USSTRATCOM and regional combatant commanders. PARCS monitors and tracks more than half of all Earth-orbiting objects with its AN/FPQ-16 phased-array radar system pointed northward over Hudson Bay, and analyzes more than 20,000 tracks per day, from giant satellites to space debris.
PARCS was built in the early 1970s, and its signal processing has received only superficial fixes since the site went online in 1975. PARCS uses 1960s-era technology, which is not widely used, and few sources are available for depot-level repair on failed components, Air Force officials say.
The PAVE PAWS and BMEWS beam steering unit (BSU), receiver exciter (REX), receiver beam former (RBF), array group driver (AGD), radio frequency monitor (RFM), frequency time standard (FTS), and the corporate feed (CFD) were built for these five radars in the late 1970s and were upgraded in the 1980s, Air Force officials say. The REX and FTS already have been redesigned and upgraded at the Beale Air Force Base, Calif., Fylingdales, England, and Thule, Greenland sites as part of the Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) programs. They will be upgraded at the Clear, Alaska, and Cape Cod, Mass., sites by 2016 or 2017., officials say.
Still, the PAVE PAWS and BMEWS have not upgraded the array front end of these radar systems, and this equipment has been in service without being replaced for More than 20 years and is rapidly nearing obsolescence, which requires a substantial technology-refresh effort.
The PARCS signal processing group (SPG) consists of 10 cabinets of equipment with hundreds of unique parts. The SPG generates frequency-modulated pulses for transmission, spectrum inversion, and pulse compression; performs side lobe reduction; as well as compares and processes track signals, multiplexing, and signal conversion. Extensive alignment and maintenance are necessary to maintain proper signal reception and analog digital conversion, Air Force officials explain.
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