PAVE PAWS Early Missile Warning Radar

Created by Raytheon

[@gindrinker69]

I have a PAVE PAWS at home and i just love it. I would reccomend it to anyone who has a big enough back yard

[@EzioAuditore]

I know, me too, i saw one on special at costco for 39 million dollars and just couldnt pass it up

[@orbitingeyes2540]

How big is the elctric bill?

[@RaceBanner_]

We live in ours and I love it. My daughter was complaining that it was too cold & drafty so I told her to shut her third mouth.

[@JadenIrons]

I have a PAVE PAWS at my home in Taiwan, now I can have early warning when my asshole neighbor throws stuff at me.

[@danielwykowski6069]

Was stationed at Beale from 83 til 85, Beale also had the SR 71 and U2. What a great time and place to be stationed.

[@Thomas23-tu8gj]

I was there 85-88 assigned to 7MWS (Pave Paws).

[@roccos7642]

Over 30 years ago I took my bulky VHS recorder up to the PAVE PAWS entry gate on Beale and filmed the structure for about a minute....when I watched it later, there were all sorts of audible pops and squeaks on the tape along with small flashes on the video itself...I filmed all over the base and the rest of the tape was clear - only at the PAVE PAWS site did it do this...

[@Forensource]

I was cop there around 1985. You should have been jacked up and your film seized. The pops and squeals are normal radar plaque, it messed up radio signals.

[@jeffburnham6611]

@@Forensource the US military didn't play games during the height of the Cold War. If someone was foolish enough to get close to one of the strategic sites, whether PAVE PAWS or SAC/NORAD or any installation, the actions you described would have happened. What you left out was being held in a tiny room for hours while you were questioned as to your intentions.

[@Forensource]

@@jeffburnham6611 During the 1980s, security at Beale Air Force Base wasn't very effective. The Air Force was more concerned about marijuana and homosexuals than actual physical security. I was an Air Force security policeman and guarded PAVE PAWS and the SR-71. We did catch people trying to take photographs of the SR 71. When caught, the film was seized and developed. As long as none of the sensors were photographed, the person receive their film back. There were no little rooms, but we did notify the the FBI in Sacramento. They would be trespassed from the base. It only happened once in the three years I was there.

[@NitroDubzzz]

@@Forensource yeah now the US military just worries about raping children and losing wars. Thanks for your service bud

[@MD-on9fi]

@@Forensource My friend was stationed at Elmendorf in the early 2000's as a Security Police airman. He said physical security was lacking as well. He guarded F-22's, EC-135's and RC-135's. He told me stories of drunk eskimos routinely breaching the perimeter fence and driving onto an active flight line. Wild times..

[@Stephanfritzel]

I can't believe I made it 10 years in the Service without learning about PAVE PAWS. So badass.

[@hckyplyr9285]

Excellent historical contribution! Love this period of Cold War defense material. The modern military era coming of age. Grew up in this period and am still fascinated by it. Many thanks!

[@wakanalotonidavenaivalu9759]

Ggggģ

[@user-372-n5w]

When President Eisenhower told you about the Military Industrial Complex it wasn't for you to jerk off to.

[@jorgeromao8267]

Fuck you. And now, a word from our hostages

[@scavenom2008]

4:40 cool music definitely bringing that vintage vibe to this videos

[@keyboard_toucher]

also 12:18

[@nmarcel]

Cool! The big dad of modern AESA radars.

[@davidmurphy8190]

Big brother of the AN/SPY-1 AEGIS radar system, now being replaced by the SPY-6 radar system.

[@zenunderground]

TOUCHSCREEN WAS AVAILABLE ALL THIS TIME?????

[@straightpipediesel]

Those aren't touchscreens. Those are light pens. They work similar to the NES Zapper and were invented in the 1940's. Touch screens were invented in the 1960's and there were computers in the 80's with them.

[@BWest]

During the early 2000’s I deliver pizzas to the one on cape and it is huge

[@twizz420]

Raytheon is about as close to sci-fi as reality will ever get.

[@dextermorgan1]

Don't forget Lockheed Skunk works. They're pretty damn close.

[@Raptorman0909]

The computer used, the Cyber 174, could process 2.5 million instruction per second. I Macbook Pro M1 Max laptop is rated at 11 trillion instructions per second -- more than 4 million times faster.

[@floydoroid]

that's insane to think about

[@kasel1979krettnach]

... and the typical comment under any such cold war youtube video...

[@Raptorman0909]

@@kasel1979krettnach -- Yeah, I'm not going to bother trying to decipher the babble you left, if you feel up to maybe taking another shot at being coherent have at it...

[@kasel1979krettnach]

@@Raptorman0909 thanks but no

[@curtwuollet2912]

Yes, but the I/O capability of the Cyber is a few orders of magnitude higher.

[@wkat950]

The systems are still very much cutting-edge. The PAVE PAWS radars and associated gear have been, in most cases, moved to the northern border to replace the Sixties-vintage BMEWS systems. At Robins AFB it was reported that the radar had to be turned off when aircraft landed due to interference. A public television station at Cochran, GA had to change from Channel 28 to Channel 29 due to the radar. Even the old AN/FPS-85 radar at Eglin, AFB (dating to 1969 ) is still kicking along.

[@i-..--..--..-i6985]

Yeh, supposedly the radar was causing weapons on certain aircraft stationed at WRAFB to arm themselves. Very very destructive type weapons with extremely complex safety systems built in. Kinda stupid to build the radar a mile or so south directly in line with the main north south runway.

[@michaelbauers8800]

The arrays are still in operation, there's ongoing upgrades.

[@humansvd3269]

I work at Robins. It's still there. Not sure if they're actually updating it, every time I drive by it, it's empty. It's like a time capsule of the 70s and 80s. You can find it on Google. I would love to go inside and take a tour but I doubt it will happen. The parking lot is used for base motorcycle safety. It can still be used if they wanted too.

[@adamsauer6516]

@@humansvd3269 i was stationed at robins too, was really cool to see the building in the back side, its massive.

[@johnanderson8046]

Not quite true. One of the two radar faces had to be "dropped" when certain approach patterns were used.

[@worldtraveler930]

I have had the good fortune back in the day to have worked as a subcontractor on one of these units in Texas, they are very impressive and I am very proud of it and I can only hope all of these units are still functional in today's world of Putin's insanity!!!! 🤠👍

[@bradjames6748]

Except that the inbound tracks would be coming straight from Canada's north, the only east west trajectory would be submarine launched ,well inside the radar cup

[@RubenKelevra]

Well you need to have radar to all sites, or they will use the blind side.

[@johnanderson8046]

PAVE PAWS was designed and placed specifically to detect SLBMs - not over the pole ICBMs. Other sensors existed for that.

[@RaceBanner_]

I installed one of these in my backyard so my WOPR would have a friend. Occasionally General Beringer stops by.

[@stephenhornung2808]

The radar was great, but the day to day job was very boring, compared to my other assignments in the Air Force.

[@michaelbauers8800]

I can imagine it's boring. Were you an operator or analyst or ... ?

[@stephenhornung2808]

​@@michaelbauers8800 I was a radar operator. My title was Crew Chief. Each crew consisted of four people, three military and one civilian. Of the three military there was a Crew Commander (usually a Lieutenant or a Captain, the Crew Chief was usually a Technical Sergeant, and the Space Systems Operator was usually an Airman but could be a Staff Sergeant. I cannot remember the title for the civilian, but their job was to ensure the system was working properly. I was stationed at Eldorado Air Force Station, TX. At the time I was assigned there, they had just build it and was in the process of getting it operational. Additionally, they had also just built one at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. A few short years later they would close both the PAVE PAWS units Eldorado and Robins Air Force Base. Unlike those units at Beale AFB and Robins Air Force Base, those units at Cape Cod and Eldorado were not built on an Air Force Base. Speaking only for where I was assigned, Eldorado AFS, there were no amenities of that of an Air Force Base, or even that of a normal radar station. There was no housing, and therefore everyone had to live off location. Most of us lived in San Angelo or in base housing at Goodfellow AFB, located at San Angelo. We had two ways to commute to the radar site, either by our personal vehicles or they ran a bus from Goodfellow AFB. The ride took about 40 minutes. The radar site was fairly secured in comparison to most bases or regular air defense radar sites. Not only was entry secured by two turnstiles and a check point in between for pedestrian traffic but two gates, a check point, and also barriers that could be raised from the ground. The site was surrounded by two fences topped with razor wire, with a Deadman's area in between. There was also cameras and listening devices all around the site. The biggest difference between PAVE PAWS and a regular radar that tracked air planes for an operator was of course the distance of the radar, but also what was seen on the scope. Regular radar site the operator would see every aircraft that penetrated it's radar coverage, whereas with PAVE PAWS, the radar operator only saw those things that required observations. While the job was important, I found it to be very boring compared to other assignments. Occasionally, the radar site would be evaluated, and if those in the Missile Warning Operations Center failed, then so did the whole radar site. What determined that was they would run a sim tape over live radar, and at some point the radar would detect a missile launch. Then it was the responsibility of both the Crew Commander and the Crew Chief to determine, not that if it was a valid launch but rather if the systems was valid. We had 60 seconds to do so, if we could not do so in that allowed time, we and the radar site failed. It was a decent assignment due to all the things you could see and do in the area, and because of the people I worked with.

[@michaelbauers8800]

@@stephenhornung2808 Thanks for all that info, very interesting. I have some involvement with the modern system so always interested in the history of the system

[@humansvd3269]

robins site still exists. It's a time capsule and it's exactly as you describe. I think they're going to bring it back.

[@robertlucey6099]

You're right, the day-to-day job could be tedious. I was at Beale PAVE PAWS 85-88 as a Crew Commander and then unit DOT Chief. We went through the downsizing of the ops crew from four- to three-person during that time. Remember meeting some of the Eldorado ops people at a training conference at Peterson.

[@herbsewell5302]

5:08 I need this song. So good.

[@dagger6467]

Algorithm at work again. We lived at Otis before my Dad was stationed in West Germany. We didn't get to see it finished until we moved back to the US.

[@michaelmorgan7893]

So this is what replaced SAGE?

[@ChristopherSaindon]

Implement confidence reporting!

[@_Delos_]

Raytheon huh? That’s cool.

[@orbitingeyes2540]

"This is the display for East East-Median"...

[@sfertonoc]

Nowadays basic computers do easily 1.8 billion instructions per seconds but 1.8 million for this time seem a lot.

[@frankthespank]

I love this era of The Cold War. I was a Cold War kid of the 80’s, scared to death of nuclear annihilation, but this stuff fascinated the hell out of me. It was so intertwined in our culture, we used it to scare us of a great threat at the same time entertain us in movies, it was a strange time…. We were so afraid those “Red’s” were going to nuke us and we’d have to suffer nuclear fallout radiation like in the movie Testament or live in a wasteland like in the movie The Day After but we all slept at night because we knew we had “future technology” like this to protect us from those evil rooskies. ………WOLVERINES!!! 😎

[@twizz420]

"knew" you had protection from the Russians... If the Russians ever fired off all their warheads at once (which they definitely would, because the US would do the same as soon as they realized nukes were coming) then none of this stuff would have made a difference. It would have been like trying to take out a swarm of bees with a bb gun.

[@frankthespank]

@@twizz420 Not so much… America is/was the only country that has/had a pretty good “first strike” capability (stealth). We had a lot more stealth bombers planned but were way too expensive to make them in quantities we needed to fight World War III (like a BILLION dollars to make each copy in 1980’s money) and the “stealth fighter” (not a fighter at all but a light bomber designed to carry ONE nuclear bomb) was kind of a stop gap measure to get a bunch of nukes into Russia undetected but then the iron curtain fell and we foolishly thought the Soviet threat was no more, enter Cold War 2.0….

[@twizz420]

@@frankthespank that only works if the US strikes first, AND manages to take out ALL of their nukes at the same time before they have a chance to fire any. Considering Russia currently has about 1500 active nukes, there is absolutely no way the US would be able to take them ALL out at the exact same time, before Russia even had a chance to react.

[@frankthespank]

@@twizz420 Well, yeah. I didn’t say it wasn’t kind of a “long shot” strategy, ya know? 😆. We were PLANNING this type of defense based on the old adage of “a good defense is a really strong offense”, but like I said, the iron curtain came down and we foolishly thought the Soviet threat was over but one piece of Soviet era weaponry survived, Vladimir Putin. At the time we were also developing systems like THAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and other reentry vehicle intercept systems that would protect the U.S from a missile spam from the Soviet Union/Russia. Think about it, we have stealth bombers with cruise missiles (which I bet top secret ones are also stealth), ICBM’s and our submarines nuking Russia’s silos, air bases and mobile platforms that our satellites spot then we have intercept systems intercepting what slips through. Is it a “perfect” defense? No, nothings “perfect” but in my opinion it’s a “pretty good” defense and offense. It was good enough that Putin got really pissed off that we were such snakes developing and deploying such technology when we were all “friends” that he’s now trying to counter it with missiles that change course at random and strike at hypersonic speeds. I saw a video of Putin speaking to a table of former Warsaw Pact member’s presidents/prime ministers and he was downright pissed off talking about how when the iron curtain fell we were both “equal” and again, “friends”, we had ICBM’s and they had ICBM’s and other delivery systems for thermal nuclear bombs but now the U.S is “trying” to make Russia’s nuclear system “obsolete” by developing rockets that can intercept their missiles and reentry vehicles and in a sense make Russia’s nuclear “defense” “useless”. Putin was mad when he spoke about it and was kind of stuttering. It was strange to watch.. intercept “kill vehicles” might not be 100% but it seems to have Putin worried.

[@thilde007]

dont forget about all the nukes that would launch from subs

[@josemoreno3334]

Cobra Dane comes to mind. Alaska.

[@johnanderson8046]

Cobra Dane(on Shemya) is primarily an intelligence gathering system. But phased array radars do exist at Clear, Cavalier, Thule and Fylingdales in addition to the two PAVE PAWS sites.

[@jasonudall8614]

And farlingdale is troubled by the 5G phone signals from smart meters

[@hubzcaps]

600 thousand watts. Per side. Fuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh

[@jayfreischlag4666]

322 watts each x 5000 on each face... that’s just crazy. Now wonder it needed its own power.

[@pizzapoundcake4043]

Some great music throughout this reel! 5:10

[@GeorgeLiquor]

A Moog and a Fender Rhodes, sounds like

[@GeorgeLiquor]

There's a video about the old OTH system with some good music too

[@nobodyshome4633]

“All stations, be advised - satellite surveillance has been disabled. SOSUS and PAVE PAWS arrays are inoperative at this time” - Modern Warfare 2 - NORAD HQ

[@michaelbauers8800]

Sounds unpleasant, if that was true in spring 2022, with what's going on in the world. Never played MW2, it's interesting that they mention PAVE PAWS in the game. Have not heard of SOSUS.

[@jayhollowayii2]

Sosus is the navy submarine tracking I think 🤔 if I am Not mistaken

[@davidmurphy8190]

SOSUS, also known as Project CAESAR, was a network of underwater sensors intended to detect and track subsurface threats. SOSUS was to be succeeded by the IUSS, which was also known as Project ARIADNE.

[@SocialistDistancing]

What year was this film realeased? I didn't see that in the credits..

[@johnanderson8046]

I'd guess this dates from the early 1980s.

[@farmninja6653]

This video uses Dawn of the Dead (1978) music as part of the soundtrack.

[@thilde007]

Cool, surprised youtube didnt flag that

[@farmninja6653]

@@thilde007It’s public domain stock music

[@chipChipperson202]

Now know as Space Force

[@thilde007]

Ok

[@magisterrleth3129]

I've been having a problem with my neighbors firing submarine-launched thermonuclear ballistic missiles into my yard for the longest time, but now that I have PAVE PAWS, their troublemaking is a thing of the past!

[@thilde007]

But remember the PAVE PAWS is just for missile warning..no intercept capability haha

[@patluvsvettes]

Is the Pave Paws system still in use, or has another radar system replaced it?

[@richhoule3462]

Still in use

[@johnanderson8046]

Still in use though the technology has been upgraded several times from that shown in this dated film.

[@robertbolding4182]

does four minutes of warning mean anything if subs shoot at us? you cant get airplanes isn the air and the blast would still shoot them down

[@ipodhty]

It allows your land missle batteries to fire before being hit

[@unassistedsuicide2243]

@@ipodhty That’s the hope

[@thilde007]

Wouldnt mean much to some but it would tell us where it came from. Its a good thing to know before retaliating.

[@jamielacourse7578]

Weren't these shut down after only a brief period?

[@markrowe8824]

I think you mean the anti ballistic missile base pyramid radar in North Dakota. 🤔🤔

[@johnanderson8046]

The PAVE PAWS radars in Georgia and Texas were shuttered. Cape Cod and Beale still operate.

[@vividfilmzzz]

Well then, time to have this be useful

[@abathens]

I hope Putin knows about PAVE PAWS!

[@humansvd3269]

@@abathens they do.

[@thilde007]

I love hearing all these stories that are so far from being true..not even being sarcastic

[@KAldrich17]

Keeping Cape Cod & America Safe. Thank god for our military!

[@joeb7373]

How does this system compare with the Patriot system in the bird cooking department?

[@thilde007]

The radar crews have to sweep up the birds who got too close after every shift

[@johnanderson8046]

Not hardly. @@thilde007

[@pra1ma246]

nice

[@kennethroy9974]

Hope it works 👍

[@dextermorgan1]

It does

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Looks like it's related to HAARP.

[@allahgamer46]

mw2 be like

[@bobroberts2371]

11:18 - 12:18 ". . . . I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 Unit. Its going to go 100 percent failure within 72 hours. . . ."

[@thevansmack]

I like pave paws because it makes me think about kitty paws

[@TheSpaceshuttle7]

Birds probably ignite when they fly in front of that fucking thing haha 😂

[@cody3650]

My laptop can do that now

[@kasel1979krettnach]

it cant

[@rolfstamenov9914]

All this equipment fits onto 2 trucks now

[@michaelbauers8800]

Including those buildings? :)

[@samuellunn8626]

Lol okay bud

[@88njtrigg88]

Satellites included, for real.

[@Thomas23-tu8gj]

Uh...no.

[@SpartacusErectusJR]

They had touch screens back then yet we can’t go back to the moon 🌙 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@Thomas23-tu8gj]

Not "can't." Choose not to.

[@chipChipperson202]

This is why the Cancer rate is so high for people who live on cape cod.

[@thilde007]

You didn’t do your homework

[@Thomas23-tu8gj]

You knowest not of what you speak.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Oh, right, Beale ... that was hit first in _The Day After_ when NATO used battlefield nukes on advancing Red Army troops.

[@Forensource]

Your remark is silly and stupid.

[@Odessia-ij5ys]

This miltary reel film have bad sound quality..... sounds highschool films...

[@johnanderson8046]

It was made by Raytheon, the PAVE PAWS prime contractor, not the "military."

[@eagle7757]

Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved, John 3:16, KJV...

[@unassistedsuicide2243]

Here’s hoping I won’t have to wait long for God to remember me after he allows me to be vaporized

[@frankmiller95]

Not from your stupidity