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Fylingdales - from Golf Balls to Pyramid |
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In the last few years a gigantic pyramid has replaced the once familiar golf balls. The radar system has been significantly changed - a sure sign that the base still performs an important role in the ever-developing technology of the US Star Wars system. The "upgrading" of the base was announced in 1985 after the US Space Command (based in Colorado Springs) decided that the three mechanical radar dishes would be replaced by an electronically steerable Large Phased Array Radar (LPAR). The contract was eventually awarded to Raytheon who also upgraded the system at Thule in a similar fashion in 1987. Despite increasing opposition locally and nationally in the U.K., work on the new system started in August 1989 and it became operational in October 1992. It cost around £200 million, of which the US paid 70% (for the radar technology) and the UK 30% (for the operating infrastructure). The LPAR is a three-faced truncated pyramid-shaped structure about 32 metres high set on a building 7 metres high and 36 metre long on each side. Each face is about 40m across and contains an array of 2,560 aerials (circularly-polarised `Pawsey stub' antennae), each of which produces a transmitter power of 340 Watts, giving an overall mean power output of 2.5 Megawatts. The new radar has a similar output power and the same 3000 mile range as the old one. The building houses the operations rooms and support equipment. A communications dish is also mounted on top of the modernised radar building in a dome about 1.3 metres in diameter. The access road connects the base from the A169. A 3-metre high security fence 105 metres square surrounds the building at a distance of about 35 metres (see map of base ). The break up of the Soviet Union has meant that the US military have had to search for a new "enemy" to justify the enormous expenditure on this type of system. The new radar at Fylingdales covers a much wider area than the old system, it has a 5000 km range and is unique in having three active faces and a full 360o coverage. The strategic importance of the base was emphasised when, in January 1999 a new high security electric fence was erected (see news item of 8/1/99). The US now intend a further upgrade so that it can be used as part of the National Missile Defence (NMD) system to shield the US mainland from missile attack by a combination of radar and anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences. (See 'NMD upgrade' ). |
