File:Meck Island radars.jpg

Meck_Island_radars.jpg (551 × 435 pixels, file size: 43 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Description
English: This image looks to the southeast across the southern end of Meck Island in the Kwajalein atoll.

The main building in the foreground is the Systems Technology Test Facility. This was originally used during the Nike-X program to test the Missile Site Radar, which is installed on the white pyramid, just left of center. The rails extending to the ground allowed maintenance using a system similar to a window-washing elevator. Nike-X evolved into Sentinel, then Safeguard, and then the entire ABM effort was shut down after the 1972 ABM Treaty.

In the later 1970s, fears grew that the Soviets might "break out" of the ABM Treaty. To counter this possibility, the Army began development of the Site Defense Program, which would incorporate a radar similar to the MSR but using newer electronics, and an updated missile known as Sprint II. The new Site Defense Radar (SDR) was built on the smaller building just to the right of the original MSR in 1977, and operated until 1980. No Sprint II missiles were built, and the program switch to focus on technology development instead of testing.

The island was backfilled to make room for the SDP buildings, and the filled in area can be seen in this image as the light colored ground on the right side. The two metal fences on the lower left of the image reflected the sidelobes of the original MSR away from the built-up area for the missile silos, which is off-frame to the left.
Date circa 1980
date QS:P,+1980-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Source https://www.army.mil/article/149984/SMDC_History__Systems_Technology_Program_New_Emphasis_for_BMD_in_1975
Author US Army

Licensing

Public domain
This file is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain in the United States.

العربية  বাংলা  català  čeština  Deutsch  English  español  eesti  فارسی  suomi  français  hrvatski  magyar  Bahasa Indonesia  italiano  日本語  한국어  lietuvių  македонски  മലയാളം  မြန်မာဘာသာ  Nederlands  polski  português  русский  sicilianu  српски / srpski  Türkçe  українська  Tiếng Việt  中文(简体)  中文(繁體)  +/−

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current17:31, 31 October 2016Thumbnail for version as of 17:31, 31 October 2016551 × 435 (43 KB)Maury MarkowitzUser created page with UploadWizard

The following page uses this file:

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

  • Usage on vi.wiki.x.io

Metadata