Falling Leaves (radar network)
{{Short description|Improvised ballistic missile early warning system during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis}}
{{Distinguish|List of Nike missile sites#Florida{{!}}anti-aircraft surveillance radars deployed to Florida during the crisis|Fairchild Trophy{{!}}the SAC program that granted/rescinded temporary spot promotions for winning the bomb/nav competition}}
Falling Leaves was an improvised ballistic missile early warning system of the United States Air Force. It was set up during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and networked 3 existing U.S. radars—2 Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS) radars and an Aircraft Control and Warning general surveillance radar which was modified by Sperry Corporation to {{Convert|1500|mi|abbr=on}} range, allowing detection in space near Cuba.{{r|Dobbs}} The designation was assigned by the 9th Aerospace Defense Division, headquartered at Ent AFB, Colorado.
Soviet R-12 Dvina IRBMs arrived in Cuba on September 8. Intelligence sources in Cuba then reported lengthy missiles transported through towns, and three R-12 sites were photographed by Lockheed U-2s by October 19. Afterwards, the "Cuban Missile Early Warning System (CMEWS)" radars were "realigned" to monitor for nuclear missile launches from the new Soviet launch sites.{{r|NORAD1962B}}
The Falling Leaves system used the following:{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary |version=1962b |accessdate=2014-04-15}}
- RCA AN/FPS-49 Radar Set prototype{{Cite book |author=Bate, Mueller, and White |year=1971 |orig-year=origyear tbd |title=Fundamentals of Astronautics |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486600611 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtJK8cetqGkC&q=fps-92&pg=PA133 |format=Google books |access-date=2014-03-05 |quote=FPS-49 has an 85-foot mechanically-steered dish antenna weighing 106 tons … up to 10° per second.8 The prototype is located at Moorestown, New Jersey}} ("prototype" is also identified by [http://www.radomes.org/museum/parsehtml.php?html=LaredoAFSTX14MWSDetachments.html&type=doc_html a webpage.)] of 1961{{r|Winkler}}{{rp|54}} in New Jersey during development for the under-construction BMEWS Site III which was to have 3 of the tracking radars. The prototype was "withdrawn from SPADATS and realigned to provide missile surveillance over Cuba" on 24 October.{{r|NORAD1962B}}
- AN/FPS-78{{r|NORAD1962B}} in Texas, to which was added "real time radar display equipment" from an Alaska radar station.{{r|Sagan}} (realigned 26 October)
- Sperry AN/FPS-35 Frequency Diversity Radar{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/an-fps-35.htm |title=AN/FPS-35 Radar - United States Nuclear Forces|publisher=fas.org|access-date=2015-02-22}} in Alabama, operated by "Task Force Able"{{r|Sagan}} and later awarded a Unit Citation for Falling Leaves (698th{{r|Dobbs}} commanded by Lt. Colonel Kenneth Gordon{{r|Sagan}}). (30 October)
Operations
As Fred Dobbs writes of his experience as an airman at Thomasville Air Force Radar Base in Alabama (newly deployed in 1962{{r|FAS}}),{{bsn|date=March 2024}}
{{blockquote|
In early October, 1962, we received word that a special team from Sperry was coming in to extend the range of our receiver by three to five times. This would make it possible for us to see objects up to 1500 miles away. At that range, our beam would be in space {{sic|due the}} curvature of the earth. ... Our beam [from Alabama] was sweeping over Cuba first. Then a beam from a Texas radar swept across the top of ours. Finally, a radar in New Jersey was adjusted to sweep over the Texas beam. ... Now every scope had a "Full Bird Colonel" watching the sweep go round and round. ... Each of them had a headset, and an open mike to NORAD. If they saw a missile lift off from Cuba the word would be given to launch ours.{{Cite web |format=military anecdote |last=Dobbs |first=Fred C |date=August 31, 2006 |title=Falling Leaves |url=http://justpapa.blogspot.com/2006/08/falling-leaves-it-is-late-summer-1962.html |website=It's just Papa |access-date=2014-04-17}}}}
Information communicated to the Ent AFB BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility was synthesized to provide missile warning to display processors at the Pentagon and Strategic Air Command.
The FPS-49 radar detected a Cape Canaveral launch Titan II ICBM on October 26 (N-12 Mk 6 reentry vehicle test){{Cite web |title=tbd |url=http://time-az.com/main/detail/24035 |access-date=2014-04-16 |quote=2 October 26---17:05 GMT---Cape Canaveral LC15. LV Model: Titan 2. Titan II N-12 Mk 6 re-entry vehicle test launch Agency: USAF AFSC. Apogee: 1,300 km (800 mi). |archive-date=2014-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713150826/http://time-az.com/main/detail/24035 |url-status=dead }}—the trajectory was determined to be safely Southeastward over the Atlantic Missile Range.{{Cite book |chapter-url=http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2012/11/operation-falling-leaves.html |last=Sagan |first=Scott D |year=1993 |title=The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pV_wbOnphsC |chapter=Chapter 4 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691021010 |access-date=2014-04-16}} On October 28, a test tape inserted at the New Jersey radar site caused a false alarm indicating a missile would impact Tampa{{cite book|title=Forecast and Solution: Grappling with the Nuclear, a Trilogy for Everyone|author=Jeanes, I.|date=1996|publisher=Pocahontas Press|isbn=9780936015620|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-LGZETtVCiAC|page=151|access-date=2015-02-22}} and later the same day, an unidentified radar track over Georgia was recognized as a satellite.{{Which|reason=Which satellite, as there weren't many satellites in 1962? Perhaps Echo? |date=April 2014}}{{Cite book |last=George |first=Alice L |title=Awaiting Armageddon: How Americans Faced the Cuban Missile Crisis |via=Internet Archive |publisher=UNC Press Books |year=2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/awaitingarmagedd0000geor |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/awaitingarmagedd0000geor/page/57 57] |isbn=9780807861615 |quote=Falling Leaves cuba missile. |access-date=2014-04-19 }} On November 28 the New Jersey and Texas radars returned to their SPADATS mission, and the Alabama radar continued coverage for Cuba launches until late December.NORAD/CONAD Participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Historical Reference Paper No. 8, Directorate of Command History Continental Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, CO , 1 Feb 63 (Top Secret NOFORN declassified 9 March 1996)
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, a contract to Bendix Corporation was issued on April 2, 1962 to construct a long range radar at Eglin AFB, FL.{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary |version=1962}} Thus a AN/FPS-85 long-range phased-array radar was constructed beginning in October 1962.{{Cite report |last1=Winkler |first1=David F |last2=Webster |first2=Julie L |date=June 1997 |title=Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program |url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201202922/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231 |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 1, 2012 |location=Champaign, IL |lccn=97020912 |publisher=U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories |access-date=2013-04-23 }} ([http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/searching_the_skies.htm transcription available] at the Federation of American Scientists website){{cite web |title=20th Space Control Squadron |url=https://www.petersonschriever.spaceforce.mil/?id=4730 |access-date=2011-02-21 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228181903/http://www.peterson.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=4730 |archive-date=2010-12-28 }}
In 1972, 20% of the FPS-85 "surveillance capability…became dedicated to search for SLBMs.Jane's Radar and Electronic Systems, 6th edition, Bernard Blake, ed. (1994), p. 31 (cited by Winkler)