SCR-584 Radar
| Type: | Modified Anti-Aircraft Fire Control Radar |
| Frequency Type: | Microwave |
| Frequency Band: | S-Band and X-Band (Modified) |
| Frequency: | 2.7-2.9 GHz and 8.0-12.0 Ghz (Modified) |
| RMS Accuracy: | 1-1.5 milliradians |
| Location Accuracy: | 25 yards at maximum range |
| Beam Width: | 4 degrees |
| Search Range: | 70,000 yards |
| Automatic Tracking Range: | 32,000 yards |
| Scanning Type: | Conical |
| Scanning Modes: | Continuous azimuth, helical, manual |
| Reflector Type: | Parabolic |
From David K. Barton’s “Early Radar Activity at WSPG,” dated January 2014:
To support two of the earliest projects at White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG), the V-2 and WAC Corporal programs, a six-man detachment of Signal Corps Engineering Laboratory (SCEL), headquartered out of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, was dispatched to south-central New Mexico in 1946. Originally working out of the Alamogordo Army Air Field, renamed Holloman Air Force Base in January 1948, the SCEL detachment installed two SCR-584 radars at A-Station, located one mile south of Army Launch Area 1 (ALA-1), known today as Launch Complex 33 (LC-33). Using pairs of AN/APN-55 transponders mounted into the tail section of the V-2s and WAC Corporals, the SCR-584 radars would be used to track the rockets as they ascended and turned north for their travel down-range.
The detachment quickly learned that, due to their relatively short distance from the launch site, the radars would struggle to maintain a lock on the transponders as the rocket gained altitude almost as fast as the rate at which the radar dish could elevate. To alleviate this, the radars were moved to C-Station, located three miles south of ALA-1, a solution that reduced the initial angular rate of climb by a factor of three.
By 1948, WSPG had modified one of the SCR-584s with an 8-foot reflector dish and added another pair of radars capable of operating in the X-Band. The X-Band radars were used for the Nike I Project before Bell Laboratories, the primary contractor for the Nike Program, installed monopulse radars that provided command guidance and tracking for later tests. General Electric, the primary contractor working on another “special missile program,” likely the Hermes Program, installed another S-Band SCR-584 at C-Station, bringing the total to five radars.
By the 1950s, radar technology had evolved, resulting in the development of more sophisticated systems that could provide continuous coverage over the entire range and track multiple objects using a single radar unit. The SCR-584s, originally used for fire direction and control in World War II, were developed into the AN/MPQ-12 and AN/MPQ-18, both of which were specialized for range instrumentation. An even more sophisticated radar, the AN/FPS-16, was installed at C-Station and on mobile trailer units and was itself developed into numerous variants with specialized capabilities, some of which are still in use on WSMR today.
In addition to the vehicles carrying the radars themselves, SCR-584s were accompanied by ground support equipment that included a communications van, a maintenance van, two plotting board vans, and an optical tracking unit.