U.S. military radar(defense) systems?
How does the U.S. military use radar to help protect america.
1.) like where are the radars located, are they just at military bases or do they have them in the ocean, down the coast lines, or something of that sort?
2.) do they combine all of the radar images to form a giant live radar screen of america?
*also would appreciate any other info regarding topic*- THANKS
Comments
The U.S. uses a multilayer radar system ran through Norad. The radars are in the air (AWACS), on the land, in the sea (on ships) and even in space. The areas of the world are broken up into sections and those sections are fed to larger sections with a commander overseeing all the sections.
http://www.historycommons.org/events-images/251_no...
http://ohermenauta.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/nor...
For North American Air Defense (NORAD) operations, they take radar pictures from many sources, ground based radars, AWACS, naval assets, and link them together via data link. The battle commander in Cheyenne Mountain will have over all authority over the situation but can delegate to the lesser defense sectors if needed.
Our passive radar's are located primarily on the coasts and in Northern Canada. Aegis cruisers and AWACS can serve to extend their radar coverage if need be.
The radar images would be on different screens of differing geographic locations. It wouldn't be on a global scale, rather more of a regional scale, like say the entire state of Alaska.
Tough to answer this without violating OPSEC (Operational Security).
Best was to say it is that the Army has SENTINEL Radars, The Navy uses the AEGIS system, and the Air force uses larger radar and E3 Sentry AWACs all together to assemble the puzzle.