Cavalier Space Force Station
{{Short description|US Space Force station near Cavalier, North Dakota}}
{{Infobox military installation
| name = Cavalier Space Force Station
| ensign =
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| location =
| nearest_town = Cavalier, North Dakota
| country = United States
| image = File:Cavalierairforcestationparcs.jpg
| alt = The AN/FPQ-16 PARCS solid state phased array radar system at Cavalier AFS.
| caption = The AN/FPQ-16 PARCS solid state phased array radar system at Cavalier AFS.
| image2 = 100px
| alt2 =
| caption2 = Emblem of Space Base Delta 2
| type = US Space Force station
| coordinates = {{Coord|48|43|55|N|97|54|16|W|display=inline,title}}
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| pushpin_map = USA North Dakota # USA
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| pushpin_map_caption = Location in the United States
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| pushpin_label = Cavalier SFS
| pushpin_label_position = bottom
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| ownership = Department of Defense
| operator = United States Space Force
| controlledby = Buckley Garrison
| open_to_public =
| site_other_label = Radar type
| site_other = AN/FPQ-16 PARCS
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| built = {{Start date|1977}}
| used = 1977 – present
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| condition = Operational
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| occupants = 10th Space Warning Squadron
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Cavalier Space Force Station, North Dakota, is a United States Space Force installation, where the 10th Space Warning Squadron, Space Delta 4, United States Space Force monitors and tracks potential missile launches against North America with the GE AN/FPQ-16 Enhanced Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System (PARCS). The PARCS also monitors and tracks over half of all earth-orbiting objects to enable space situation awareness and space control. In addition to contractors, NORAD has US and Canadian military members assigned to the facility.
AN/FPQ-16 PARCS
File:Cavalier Space Force Station.jpg
{{main|AN/FPQ-16 PARCS}}
The AN/FPQ-16 PARCS is a solid state phased array radar system housed "on a plain just east of the Pembina Escarpment"{{Cite web | url=http://srmsc.org/par2000.html |title = Perimeter Acquisition Radar (Safeguard PAR)}} in a 37 m (121 ft){{cite web |url=https://www.petersonschriever.spaceforce.mil/?id=4710 |title=10th Space Warning Squadron |publisher=Peterson Air Force Base|access-date=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080123091728/http://www.peterson.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=4710|archive-date=2008-01-23|url-status=live}} with a single-faced phased array radar pointed northward over Hudson Bay.{{cite web|url=https://www.af.mil/News/airman/0399/remote/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714171942/http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0399/remote.htm|title=On The Lone Prairie|last=Kuhn|first= Tom|publisher=Airman Magazine|date=March 1999|archive-date=July 14, 2007 |url-status=live|access-date= }} In normal operation PARCS can spot an object the size of a basketball (24 cm) at 3000 km (2000 miles). Tests during the 1970s and 1980s showed that with proposed software updates (not carried out) it could spot objects less than 9 cm in size.{{cite web|url=http://mostlymissiledefense.com/2012/04/12/parcs-cavalier-radar-april-12-2012/ |title=Space Surveillance Sensors: The PARCS (Cavalier) Radar (April 12, 2012)|publisher=MostlyMissileDefense.com |access-date= |date=2012-04-12}} It analyzes more than 20,000 tracks per day, from giant satellites to space debris.
The PARCS building includes an underground power plant with five, 16 cylinder dual-fuel (diesel/natural gas) engines manufactured by Cooper Bessemer driving 5 General Electric generators for a total output of 14 megawatts.{{Cite web |last=tbd |first=Mark |year=2011 |title=Perimeter Acquisition Radar (PAR), Concrete, ND |url=http://coldwartourist.com/stanley_r_mickelson_safeguard_abm_complex/perimeter_acquisition_radar_par_complex |format=trip report |work=Cold War Tourist webpage |access-date=2014-03-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328183804/http://coldwartourist.com/stanley_r_mickelson_safeguard_abm_complex/perimeter_acquisition_radar_par_complex |archive-date=2014-03-28 |url-status=dead }}
History
The facility was built as one site of the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex for the Safeguard Program's anti-ballistic missile defense, with the PAR providing detection data for computing preliminary trajectories to be provided to the Missile Site Radar{{Cite web | url=http://srmsc.org/par1000.html |title = Perimeter Acquisition Radar (PAR) Complex}} (the complex was deactivated in 1976). In 1977, the USAF acquired the site and expanded it into the Concrete Missile Early Warning System (CMEWS) named for the nearby Concrete ND community.{{cite web |url=https://www.petersonschriever.spaceforce.mil/?id=123288480 |title=Cavalier Air Force Station: Instant to Watchful Instant|author=Jim Godfrey|publisher=Peterson Air Force Base |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510185614/http://www.peterson.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123288480|archive-date=2012-05-10|url-status=live}}
The military installation was named for Cavalier ND in 1983 when Concrete's post office closed.
BAE Systems maintained the PARCS site from 2003 - 2017.{{cite web|url=http://www.baesystems.com/article/BAES_154792/bae-systems-awarded-60-million-in-us-air-force-contract-extensions-to-maintain-space-radar-and-telescope-systems?_afrLoop=517101254590000&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null&baeSessionId=TKzQTppMDnpLT71tMh7VSy8Cc2JznQprvMh0kSCY4nQnvLZcMfn9!-1646284472|title=BAE Systems Awarded $60 Million in U.S. Air Force Contract Extensions to Maintain Space Radar and Telescope Systems|date=November 27, 2012|publisher=BAE Systems|access-date=}}
Summit Technical Solutions, LLC took over the Operations, Maintenance and Logistics support of the PARCS site in October 2017.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}
On 30 July 2021 Cavalier Air Force Station was renamed Cavalier Space Force Station.{{Cite web|url=https://www.buckley.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2715043/cavalier-afs-renamed-as-us-space-force-installation/|title = Cavalier AFS renamed as U.S. Space Force installation}}
Based units
United States Space Force:
Space Operations Command (SpOC)
The 10th SWS is a Geographically Separate Unit, which although based at Cavalier, is subordinate to Space Delta 4 based at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado.{{Cite web|date=July 2020|title=Fact Sheet – Space Delta 4 - Missile Warning|url=https://www.buckley.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Article/322395/space-delta-4-missile-warning/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725060312/https://www.buckley.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Article/322395/space-delta-4-missile-warning/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 25, 2020|access-date=2 August 2020|website=Buckley Air Force Base|publisher=US Space Force|language=en-US}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{HAER |survey=ND-9-P |id=nd0078 |title=Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, Perimeter Acquisition Radar Building, Limited Access Area, between Limited Access Patrol Road & Service Road A, Nekoma vicinity, Cavalier County, ND}}
- [http://srmsc.org/pdf/004430p0.pdf Chapter 8: Perimeter Acquisition Radar], ABM Research and Development at Bell Laboratories: Project History at the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex History Page.*
- {{cite news|url=http://srmsc.org/cgi-bin/pds0010.cgi?0003__G004x0|last=Bonham|first=Kevin|title=Cavalier Air Base undergoes major upgrades|publisher=Bakken Today|date=October 16, 2014}}
{{United States Space Force}}
{{USAF Space Command}}
Category:Installations of the United States Space Force
Category:Military installations established in 1983
Category:Radar stations of the United States Air Force
Category:Buildings and structures in Pembina County, North Dakota
Category:Historic American Engineering Record in North Dakota