Altair is also used to provide the alcor and MMW imaging radars with pointing information.

Operations and Capabilities

ALTAIR is used primarily for tests of ballistic missiles and ballistic missile defenses and for space surveillance. It has also been used for meteor and ionospheric research.

ALTAIR is the most heavily used radar at Kwajalein. As of 2002, it spent 128 hours per week on space surveillance, and carried out more than 35,000 deep space tracks and 2,500 high-priority near-earth tracks per year.[12] [As of 2004, all four SSN radars at Kwajalein contributed 138 hours of space tracking and over 45,000 tracks annually.[13]] The other 40 hours per week were used for preparing for and supporting ballistic missile and ballistic missile defense tests. At all times, ALTAIR is subject to 15-minute recall for top category SSN tasking, particularly new satellite launches.

Although ALTAIR’s primary space surveillance tasking is for deep space objects, it also tracks near-earth objects. For example, during FY1998, ALTAIR produced 3,462 near earth tracks and 17,753 deep space tracks, and was tasked by Space Command to provide support on 76 out of the total of the world’s 86 space launches. [14]

ALTAIR is also used to provide the ALCOR and MMW imaging radars with pointing information.

ALTAIR has tracked an artificial satellite at a range of 113,100 km (the Galileo satellite on its second earth flyby on its way to Jupiter).[15]

In UHF, ALTAIR has a sensitivity (S/N ratio at 1,000 km for a 1 m2 target with a single 1 ms pulse) of about S = 49 dB = 80,000. According to a 2000 source, it can achieve a S/N = 38 dB on a 1 m2 target at a range of 1,000 km with an 80 μs pulse (equivalent to S = 49 dB).[16] During a 1994 space debris measurement campaign, ALTAIR could produce S/N of about 9 on a 0.0001 m2 target at a range of 1,000 km with a single 1 ms pulse (equivalent to S =49 dB).[17] According to a 1989 source, ALTAIR could produce

S/N of 45 dB on 1.0 m2 target at 1,000 km with a 1.0 ms pulse (equivalent to S =25 dB).[18]

[1] The main sources of information used here are: K.R. Roth, M.E. Austin, D.J. Frediani, G.H. Knittel, and A.V. Mrstik, “The Kiernan Reentry Measurements System on Kwajalein Atoll, The Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1989). pp. 247-276; A. Gerber, G. Hogan, M. Corbin, J. Corrado, J. Mathwig, H. Fitzpatrick, S. Murphy, M. Schlueter, J.B. Sherill, and T. White, “Recent Upgrades at the ALTAIR Radar for Improved Space Surveillance Support,” Proceedings of the 1996 Space Surveillance Workshop, April 1996, pp. 81-92.; Gary Duff, “Kwajalein Missile Range: ALTAIR Radar Contributions to the Space Surveillance Network,” Proceedings of the 1999 Space Control Conference, pp. 11-15; and Melvin F. Stone and Gerald P. Banner, “Radars for the Detection and Tracking of Ballistic Missiles, Satellites, and Planets,” Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2000), pp. 217-24.

[2] Stone and Banner, p. 236.

[3] S. Chapman, A. Gerber, G. Hogan, S. Hunt, R. Anderson, J. Conrad, D. Sponseller, and M. Schleueter, Recent Improvements at the ALTAIR Radar, Proceedings of the 1994 Space Surveillance Workshop, Lincoln Laboratory, pp. 229-239.

[4] Chris Wheeland, Michael Boyle, Marc Barsanti, and Richard True, “Magnetic Interaction between Traveling Wave Tubes and its Effect on Performance and Reliability,” 2010 IEEE International Vacuum Electronics Conference, IVEC 2010, pp. 85-86 (May 18-20, 2010)

[5] Nicholas L. Johnson, “U.S. Space Surveillance, Advances in Space Research, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 5 – 20..

[6] Roth, et. al.

[7] Example of reports on ALTAIR’s power output at UHF include:

1989: UHF peak power is 5 MW and average power is 250 kW, with pulse lengths from 0.1 to 1,000 us. (Roth, et. al.)

2000: ALTAIR has a UHF peak power of 5 MW, an average power of 120 kW, and can emit 0.08 ms pulses at a pulse repetition frequency of 300 Hz (Banner and Stone).

2006: “nearly full use of the available average power of the UHF transmitter was 4 MW peak power, with a 5% duty cycle (corresponding to an average power of 200 kW))…” Pulse lengths of 0.4 ms at a pulse repetition frequency of 120 Hz were used. (Erhan Kudeki, Marco Milla, Martin Friedrich, Gerald Lehmacher, and Dale Sponseller, “ALTAIR Incoherent Scatter Observations of the Equatorial Daytime Ionosphere,” Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 13, pp. L08108-L08112.)

2010: UHF peak power of 5 MW. (Gene Stansbery, Paul Kervin, and Mark Mulrooney, “Plans for the Meter Class Autonomous Telescope and Potential Coordinated Measurements With Kwajalein Radars,” 8th US-Russian Space Surveillance Workshop, April 18-23, 2010. Available at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110007079_2010014487.pdf.)

[8] Gerber, et. al. (1996).

[9] Gerber, et. al. (1996).

[10] U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Factsheet, “ARPA Long-Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar,” available at: http://www.smdc.army.mil/kwaj/rangeinst/altair.html.

[11] Duff, p. 12.

[12] Philip A. Ingerwersen, William W. Camp, and Alan J. Fenn, “Radar Technology for Ballistic Missile Defense,” Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1 (2002), pp. 109-147 (p. 125).

[13] Michael C. Schexnayder, “Technology Development and Transition: Kwajalein Complex Makes Unique Contributions,” Army Space Journal, Fall 2004, pp. 6-8.

[14] Duff, p. 12.

[15] Scott M. Wacker, S.M. Hunt, and M.J. Lewis, “The U.S. Space Surveillance Network’s Tracking of Artificial Satellites Orbiting with Hyperbolic Trajectories,” Proceedings of the 1993 Space Surveillance Workshop, Lincoln Laboratory, March 30-April 1, 1993, v. 2, p. 41.

[16] Stone and Banner, p.237

[17] A. Gerber, G. Duff, and D. Izatt, “Kwajalein Missile Range Contribution to the 1994 Debris Campaign,” Proceedings of the 1995 Space Surveillance Workshop, Lincoln Laboratory, March 1995, pp. 111-119.

[18] Roth, et. al.

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