Solid State Phased Array Radar System

The Solid State Phased Array Radar System (SSPARS, colloquially "BMEWS radar network'" as late as 2004) is a USAF radar, computer, and communications system for missile warning and space surveillance "at five (5) geographically separated units worldwide including Beale AFB, CA, Cape Cod, AFS, MA, Clear AFS, AK, RAF Fylingdales, UK, and Thule AB, Greenland." SSPARS completed replacement of the RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System when the last SSPAR (phased array radar with 2500 "solid state transmitter" modules) was operational at Clear in 2001, the year SSPARS equipment included:


 * Raytheon AN/FPS-123 PAVE PAWS Radar at Beale (FPS-115 IOC April 4, 1980) and Cape Cod (FPS-115 IOC August 15, 1980)
 * Raytheon AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased Array Radar at Thule ("2QFY87") with greater radar capabilities than the FPS-115 PAVE PAWS radars
 * Raytheon AN/FPS-126 Solid State Phased Array Radar at Fylingdales with three faces for 360 degree coverage (constructed August 1989-October 1992).
 * Raytheon AN/FPS-120 Solid State Phased Array Radar using an older antenna from the 1987 PAVE PAWS EWR in Texas (groundbreaking April 16, 1998, for the "Clear Radar Upgrade")

After the Fylingdales BMEWS radars had been replaced by Raytheon/Cossor AeroSpace and Control Data Corporation (embedded CDC-Cyber computer) at a cost of US $100M, in February 1995 the "missile warning center at Cheyenne Mountain AS [was] undergoing a $450 million upgrade program". The entire SSPARS became operational on January 31, 2001 when the "SSPARS Site" at Clear AFS (separate from the BMEWS site) had Initial Operational Capability. The Clear AN/FPS-120 was subsequently "upgraded to the AN/FPS-123 model" SSPA Radar, and the SSPARS was modified in the Early Warning Radar Service Life Extension Program The US approved sale of an AN/FPS-115 to Taiwan in 2000 and it was introduced in 2006.

BAE Systems began a 2007 contract for SSPARS maintenance. The SSPARS radar electronics was subsequently upgrated, e.g., the Beale radar and the Fylingales FPS-126 each became an AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.