In fall 2012 The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Air Force award Raytheon a $125.3 million contract to modernize and upgrade the US Air Force’s early warning radar (EWR) system at Clear AFS, AK. The existing phased array radar face will remain, but new electronics and back-end software will improve performance. The difference is not a small one – with the upgrades, the upgraded EWR (UEWR) can start providing targeting data to interceptor systems.
The US military is slowly stitching together its missile defense program…
In September 2012, BAE Systems Technology Solution and Services, Rockville, MD received a 6-year, $49.2 million contract modification to manage, operate, maintain and logistically support the Solid State Phased Array Radar Systems (SSPARS). This array is also known as BMEWS, the ballistic missile early warning system of large radar installations developed during the Cold War. The radars themselves are about 11 stories tall, and excel at searching large volumes of sky that extend into space. Each has several transmitter faces, in order to provide wide coverage. BAE has a history of handling these support contracts, alongside firms like ARCTEC. This overall maintenance and support contract is expected to be complete by Sept 30/18, with awards made each year. The 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, CO, who provides missile warning and space control to NORAD and U.S. Strategic Command, manages this contract (FA2517-06-C-8001, PO 0312).
Work would be performed at Cape Cod Air Force Station, MA; Beale Air Force Base, CA+; Thule Air Base, Greenland+; Clear Air Force Station, AK, and Royal Air Force Fylingdales, United Kingdom+. Installations with a + sign have received UEWR upgrades, which also allow them to be used as low-grade targeting radars for ballistic missile defenses. Alaska’s Clear AFS is next. See also BAE’s November 2012 release.
The White House released its report [PDF] on the effects of sequestration, restating that sequestration is an indiscriminate instrument meant for threats, not actual use, and laying sole responsibility at the feet of Congress in general, and House Republicans in particular. Democrats at the House Budget Committee stuck to tying the fate of defense budgets with tax increases for the rich (what these two things have to do with each other we’ll never know) while HASC Republicans made procedural complaints. Exec summary: stuck until the election.
