Self-focusing

AN/FPS-17 antennas at Shemya, Alaska.

The AN/FPS-17 is a ground-based fixed-beam radar system that was installed at Pirinçlik Air Base in south-eastern Turkey.

This system was deployed to satisfy scientific and technical intelligence collection requirements during the Cold War. The first installation (designated AN/FPS-17, XW-1) at Diyarbakir was originally intended to provide surveillance of the USSR's missile test range at Kapustin Yar south of Stalingrad - especially to detect missile launchings. The data it produced, however, exceeded surveillance requirements, permitting the derivation of missile trajectories, the identification of earth satellite launches, the calculation of a satellite's ephemeris (position and orbit), and the synthesis of booster rocket performance. The success achieved by this fixed-beam radar led to the co-location of a tracking radar (AN/FPS-79), beginning in mid-1964. Together, these radars had the capability for estimating the configuration and dimensions of satellites or missiles and observing the reentry of manned or unmanned vehicles.

Genesis

Experimentation with the detection of missiles by a modified SCR-270 radar in 1948 and 1949 at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico along with U.S. experience in the use of high-power components on other radars, created a basis for believing that a megawatt-rated radar could be fabricated for operation over much longer ranges than ever before. The need for intelligence on Soviet missile activity being acute, a formal requirement for such a radar was established, and Rome Air Development Center was given responsibility for engineering the system.

In October 1954 General Electric, which had experience in producing high-power VHF equipment and radars, was awarded a contract for the fabrication, installation, and testing of what was to be at the time the world's largest and most powerful operational radar. The contract stipulated that the equipment was to be in operation at Site IX near Diyarbakir within nine months: by 1 June 1955. Construction began in February, and the scheduled operational date was missed by fifteen minutes.

The original antenna installation was a large D.S. Kennedy parabolic reflector, Template:Convert high by Template:Convert wide, radiating in the frequency range 175 to 215 megahertz. Standard GE high-power television transmitters, modified for pulse operation, were used initially.

Surveillance was carried out by six horizontal beams over the Kapustin Yar area. In 1958 a second antenna, Template:Convert high by Template:Convert long, and new 1.2-megawatt transmitters were installed as part of a modification kit which provided three additional horizontal beams, a seven-beam vertical fan, and greater range capability.

The elaborated system includes automatic alarm circuitry, range-finding circuitry, and data-processing equipment; it is equipped to make 35 mm photographic recordings of all signals received. A preliminary reduction of data was accomplished on-site, but the final processing was done in the Foreign Technology Division at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

From 15 June 1955, when the first Soviet missile was detected, to 1 March 1964, 508 incidents (sightings) were reported, 147 of them during the last two years of the period.

Operation

The system has eight separate radar sets or channels, each with its own exciter, transmitter, duplexer, receiver, and data display unit. These eight channels feed electromagnetic energy into sixteen fixed beams formed by the two antennas, each channel, or transmitter-receiver combination, being time-shared between two beams. Pneumatically driven switches operate on a three-second cycle to power each beam alternately for 1.5 seconds. There are antenna feeds for two additional beams which could be made to function with some patchwork in the wiring.

Beam pattern.

The antenna feeds are positioned to produce in space the beam pattern depicted in the figure. Beams 1 and 18 are those not ordinarily energized. Beams 1 through 7 use the older of the two antennas; 8 through 18 are formed by the newer, "cinerama" antenna, whose Template:Convert width gives them their narrow horizontal dimension.

Beams 2 through 9 are projected in horizontal array; 10 through 17 (although 10 actually lies in the horizontal row) are grouped as the vertical component. All beams of each group are powered simultaneously. Except for being controlled by a master timing signal, each of the eight channels operates independently of the others. Each transmitter is on a slightly different frequency to prevent interaction with the others. The transmitted pulse, 2000 microseconds long, is coded, or tagged, by being passed through a tapped delay line which may reverse the phase at 20-microsecond intervals. Upon reception the returned signal is passed through the same tapped delay line and compressed 100:1, to 20 microseconds in order to increase the accuracy and resolution of the range measurement, which is of course a function of the interval between transmission and return.

A delay line is an artificial transmission detour that serves to retard the signal, made up with series inductances and parallel capacitances that yield a constant delay. Pick-off points at 20-microsecond intervals permit these sub-pulses to be extracted in such sequence that they all arrive together, to achieve the compression effect.

This diagram shows the beam pattern superimposed on the target area.

The total azimuthal coverage is from 18° to 49.7°. The system normally detects missiles or satellites launched from Kapustin Yar at a nominal range of Template:Convert; it tracks one type of missile out as far as Template:Convert. The missiles and satellites are not sensed at their maximum detectable range because the coverage of the fixed beam configuration does not conform with the test range layout.

The electrical characteristics of each of the channels are:

             
Frequency ............................... 175-215 megahertz      
Peak power per beam ..................... 1.2 megawatts      
Pulse length ............................ 2000 microseconds     
Pulse repetition rate ................... 30 cycles per second     
Duty cycle (portion of time transmitting) 0.06                        
Beam width (horizontally elongated) ..... 2.5° x 1.8°      
Beam width (vertically elongated) ....... 1° x 2°      
Pulse compression ratio ................. 100:1         
Range accuracy .......................... within 5 nmi (9 km)                  

To illustrate how the capability of the system is calculated, we can take typical logs which show channel 4, for example, operating with the following parameters:

 
Peak power output .............. 1.0 megawatt    
Minimum discernible signal ..... 130 decibels below one milliwatt             
Frequency ...................... 192 megahertz                 

Channel 4's maximum range of intercept capability for a target one square meter in cross section is then determined by using these parameters in the radar range equation

$R=\left[{\frac {P_{t}\,G^{2}\,\lambda ^{2}\,A}{(4\,\pi )^{3}\,\sigma _{min}}}\right]^{1 \over 4}\,\!$

where:

• $R\,\!$ is the range in meters
• $P_{t}\,\!$ is the peak power transmitted in watts
• $G\,\!$ is the antenna gain over isotropic (omnidirectional) radiator
• $\lambda \,\!$ is the wavelength in meters
• $\sigma _{min}\,\!$ is the minimum discernible signal in watts
• $A\,\!$ is the target size in square meters

Substituting,

$\lambda ={\frac {c}{f}}\,\!$

where:

• $c\,\!$ is the speed of light in meters per second
• $f\,\!$ is the frequency in hertz (1/s)

$\lambda ={\frac {3\times 10^{8}\,\mathrm {m/s} }{192\times 10^{6}\,\mathrm {Hz} }}=1.56\,\mathrm {m} \,\!$

converting.

$\sigma _{min}=-130\,\mathrm {dBm} =10^{-130/10}\,\mathrm {mW} =10^{-16}\,\mathrm {W} \,\!$

and

$R=\left[{\frac {10^{6}\,\mathrm {W} \times 5000^{2}\times \left(1.56\,\mathrm {m} \right)^{2}\times 1\,\mathrm {m} ^{2}}{12.57^{3}\times 10^{-16}\,\mathrm {W} }}\right]^{1 \over 4}\,\!$

Range = Template:Convert.

Sightings made by the fixed-beam system include vertical firings (for upper-atmosphere research vehicles or booster checkout ), ballistic missiles fired to the nominal Template:Convert, Template:Convert, and Template:Convert impact areas, launches of Cosmos satellites, orbiting satellites, and natural abnormalities such as ionospheric disturbances or aurora.

Measurements and processing

Data on target missiles or satellites are recorded in each radar channel by photographing a five-inch (127 mm) intensity-modulated oscilloscope with the camera shutter open on a 35 mm film moving approximately five inches per minute. The range of an individual target is represented by its location across the width of the film, the time by a dotdash code along the length. In addition to this positional information, the target's approximate radial velocity (velocity in the direction of observation) was determined by measuring the Doppler frequency shift in the radar signal when it is returned. The doppler shift is found to within 500 cycles by determining which of eighteen frequency filters covering successive bands 500 cycles per second wide will pass the return signal. This measurement of radial velocity runs from -4 to -f-Template:Convert per second in increments of Template:Convert. All these data, together with the elevation and azimuth of the observing beam, are automatically converted to serial form, encoded in standard teleprinter code, and punched on paper tape for transmission.

Data was thus received at Wright-Patterson Foreign Technology Division (FTD) first by teleprinter and then on film, the latter accompanied by logs giving data on the target as read by site personnel and data on equipment performance such as peak transmitted power, frequency, and receiver sensitivity. Upon arrival, the film when was edited and marked to facilitate reading on the "Oscar" (preliminary processing) equipment. Targets are sorted by differences in range and rate of range change, and the returns on each were numbered in time sequence.

The FTD Oscar equipment consisted of a film reader which gave time and range data in analog form, a converter unit which changed them to digital form, and an IBM printing card punch which received the digital data. The Oscar equipment and human operator thus generated a deck of IBM cards for computer processing which contains the history of each target's position through time.

The first step in the computer processing is to translate Oscar units into actual radar range, "Z" (Greenwich mean) time, and beam number, the latter fixing the azimuth and elevation of the return. During this first step, three separate quality-control checks are made on each IBM card to eliminate erroneous data.

Those observations that succeed in passing all these tests are taken to the second step of computer processing, with fitting of a second-degree polynomial curve to the raw range/time data in accordance with least squares criteria. In this method, a mathematical function is fit to best approximate a series of observations where the sum of squares of its residuals (deviations from the raw data) is least. If there is systematic irregularity in the reliability of the data, the residuals are weighted accordingly.

A standard deviation from this curve is established, and any raw datum point showing a deviation as large as three times the standard is discarded. Then second-degree curves are similarly fitted to the azimuth/time and elevation/time data. The three second-degree polynomials - for range/time, azimuth/time, and elevation/time - are used to generate a value for position and velocity at mean time of observation, and on the basis of these values an initial estimate of the elliptical trajectory is made.

In computing the elliptical path, the earth is physically considered a rotating homogeneous sphere and geometrically considered an ellipsoid -that is, its equatorial bulge is ignored in the gravitational computation but not with respect to intersections of its surface. An ellipse not intersecting the Earth's surface represents a satellite orbit; one intersecting the Earth's surface describes a trajectory above the point of intersection.

The parameters of the ellipse are iterated with the computer, establishing a best-fit ellipse constrained by a weighted least-squares criterion. Along this ellipse the target's track is computed -the history through time of latitude, longitude, altitude, and such velocity and angular parameters as may be of interest. A missile's actual range is probably shorter than that of its computed trajectory because of its non-elliptical thrusting path and atmospheric drag after its reentry. The difference is on the order of Template:Convert to Template:Convert for short and medium range missiles, Template:Convert for ICBM's.

Shemya Island, Alaska

Soviet rocket tests to Kamchatka during the late 1950s increased interest in Shemya Island, Alaska at the western Aleutians as a location for monitoring missile tests from the far northeastern Soviet Union. Old facilities were rehabilitated and new ones constructed on the island, including a large detection radar (AN/FPS-17), which went into operation in 1960. In 1961, the AN/FPS-80 tracking radar was constructed nearby. Blue Fox refers to a modification of the AN/FPS-80 tracking radar to the AN/FPS-80(M) configuration in 1964. These radars were closed in the 1970s when the Cobra Dane phased array radar was built to monitor missile tests. Shemya was redesignated from an Air Force station to an Air Force base in 1968.

The AN/FPS-17 Detection Radar at the Shemya AFB became operational in May 1960, and the AN/FPS-80 Tracking Radar became operational on April 1, 1962.

Blue Nine refers to the project which produced the AN/FPS-79 Tracking Radar Set built by General Electric, used with the Air Force 466L Electromagnetic Intelligence System (ELINT).

Aftermath

The Diyarbakir space surveillance site operated a detection radar (FPS-17) and a tracking radar (FPS-79) throughout the 1960s and 1970s. If a new space object is sensed by the detection radar's fans, then the tracking radar can be oriented to achieve lockon. The orientation is governed by knowledge of the appropriate "normal" object's astrodynamic laws of motion, or by an assumption as to launch point. Thus, if an unknown is detected, and if it follows an unusual path, it is unlikely that it could, or would, be tracked. Furthermore, the director of the radar may make a decision that the unknown object detected is not of interest (because of the location of the FPS-17 fan penetration or because of the lack of prior information on a possible new launch). In the absence of detection fan penetration (the fan has a rather limited coverage), the FPS-79 tracking radar is tasked to follow other space objects on a schedule provided by the Space Defense CenterTemplate:Disambiguation needed, and again there is almost no likelihood that an anomalistic object could, or would, be tracked.

References

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• Stanley G. Zabetakis, John F. Peterson. THE DIYARBAKIR RADAR - Tour through one type of spaceflight tracking system. Central Intelligence Agency document APPROVED FOR RELEASE 1994; CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM 2 JULY 96. Center for the Study of Intelligence, Posted: 2007-05-08.