Ramirez Does GOML and Radars

From the Usual Source...

Yup.

―:☺:―

A blast from the past from the Usual USAF Source:

Igloo Upgrade: The Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin $46.8 million in contract options to upgrade its Atmospheric Warning System radars throughout the US and Canada. The contract covers initial planning and design work to modernize 29 AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radars, which were initially built by Lockheed in the 1980s under the Seek Igloo North Warning program, according to a company release. It includes 15 radars in Alaska, 11 in Canada, as well as individual sites in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Utah. The solid-state L-band radar is capable of continuously covering airspace out to 250 miles using unmanned operations that are reliable even in harsh Arctic climates. Lockheed expects to be awarded follow-on contract options to update the radar's signal and data processing, extending the network life-span through 2025, states the release. The company already has completed similar work at sites in the UK, Germany, Romania, and Kuwait.

That would be a COLD blast from the past.   A lot o' you Gentle Readers know that I spent 16 years in the long-range air defense radar bid'niz, with a couple o' tours off for good behavior which I spent on the periphery o' the Once and Current Evil Empire.  Said tours weren't much of an improvement, actually, when it came to geographic locations, but there were other benefits.

I didn't much like the radar biz, mainly coz it ain't nice living on top of mountains or in close proximity to same, USUALLY out in the boonies somewhere... but not always: there were USAF radar sites in Palos Verdes in El-Eh, Mt. Tamalpais in SFO, and Montauk Point on Long Island, just to name three desirable sites (at which I never served).  So it pleases me to read the current radars use "unmanned operations," which I take to mean minimally attended.  There really isn't such a thing as unmanned ops; maintenance must be performed on a regular basis.  That maintenance is better performed by contractors than Blue Suiters, sez I, coz I know what it means to do that sorta thang.  In environments like this:

I spent one year, three days, eight hours and ten minutes there.  Not that I was counting.