The Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands is a U.S. naval facility and airport located five

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (9 km) northwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Kekaha Kekaha (literally, "the place" in Hawaiian) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 3,715 at the 2020 census, up from 3,175 at the 2000 census. History For most of the 20th century, the Ke ...

, in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. PMRF is the world's largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range. The US military and its contractors favor its relative isolation, ideal year-round tropical climate and encroachment-free environment (see "PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative" below). It is the only range in the world where

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s, surface ships, aircraft and space vehicles can operate and be tracked simultaneously. There are over of instrumented underwater range and over of

controlled airspace Controlled airspace is airspace of defined dimensions within which air traffic control (ATC) services are provided. The level of control varies with different classes of airspace. Controlled airspace usually imposes higher weather minimums tha ...

. The base itself covers roughly . The base includes a runway with operations and maintenance facilities. It has roughly 70 housing units and various recreational facilities for those who can access the base. The base has support facilities at Port Allen, Makaha Ridge, and Koke'e State Park. The base also uses a portion of the nearby island of Niihau for a remotely operated APS-134 surveillance radar, an Test Vehicle Recovery Site, the Perch Electronic Warfare site, multiple EW Portable Simulator sites, and a Helicopter Terrain Flight training course.

History

In 1921, the land area known as the Barking Sands was acquired by the Kekaha Sugar Company and became a runway for private planes. In 1928 Charles Kingsford Smith, a record-setting Australian aviator, took off with his four-man crew from a sandy runway here to fly non-stop to Fiji. They had arrived in Hawaii at Wheeler Army Airfield, but left from Barking Sands as Wheeler was not long enough to take off with their heavy load. The U.S. Army acquired the land in 1940, named it Mana Airport, and paved the runway. Additional land acquired in 1941 expanded the facility to . Private airlines frequently utilized the airport, and World War II incurred a great deal of military flight operations. The base was officially designated Bonham Air Force Base in 1954. U.S. Navy operations at Bonham began in 1956, with testing of the

Regulus I The SSM-N-8A Regulus or the Regulus I was a United States Navy-developed ship-and-submarine-launched, nuclear-capable turbojet-powered second generation cruise missile, deployed from 1955 to 1964. Its development was an outgrowth of U.S. Nav ...

missile. In 1958, the Pacific Missile Range Facility was established to support the growing demand of the Navy at Bonham. In 1964, the Pacific Missile Range Facility and Bonham was transferred to the Navy, becoming Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands.

Missile tests

In 1962, the U.S. military conducted the Frigate Bird Test of the Operation Dominic program near PMRF. The military launched an operational ballistic missile with a live warhead from the , which was situated near PMRF. The nuclear warhead flew toward Christmas Island and detonated in an

air burst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

at . The Navy is currently using PMRF to test "hit to kill" technology using direct collision of the

anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles (missile defense). Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear weapon, nuclear, Chemical weapon, chemical, Bioagent, biological, or conventiona ...

with its target. This destroys the target by using only kinetic energy from the force of the collision. The two Missile Defense Agency programs that currently utilize the range at PMRF are the Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and the Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, or THAAD. The THAAD program relocated their testing operations from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and conducted its first demonstration at PMRF on 26 January 2007. On 27 April 2007, the U.S. military's sea-based missile defense system, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, showed it could intercept two targets simultaneously when it destroyed a

cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...

and a short-range ballistic missile during a test off the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The test marked eight out of ten times the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy's Aegis missile defense system successfully intercepted its target, but was the first time the system knocked out two targets at the same time.

PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative

The Navy is currently working with the

State of Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

and Kauai County to ensure the long-term viability of PMRF. For many decades, the land adjacent to PMRF was used for

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

fields, which was wholly compatible with operations at PMRF. Since Kekaha Sugar's closure, the Navy has become wary of "encroachment", incompatible developments, that might occur on the land next to the base. In order to ensure that PMRF can continue to safely conduct important research and training operations in the future, the Navy and some citizens of Kauai are seeking to permanently preserve the land adjacent to PMRF for

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

purposes. Under the PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative the Navy would have the roughly of land adjacent to PMRF preserved solely for agricultural use. Although the Navy has stated that it would like to lease about of land, it has also stated that its main goal is not to purchase more land but to merely ensure the land continues to be used for agricultural purposes.

Operational deployment of THAAD

When North Korea threatened to launch Taepodong-2 ICBMs toward Hawaii in 2009, the US temporarily deployed a THAAD missile unit to the facility.

Range Programs

The range hosted the following programs: ''Missiles and Rockets''
November 21, 1960, p. 14. * Able III & IV * ADTS * Atlas * Bullpup (A) & (B) * Caleb Satellite *

Centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

* Composite Radiation Satellite * Corvus I * Courier * Discoverer * Dyna-Soar *

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

* Falcon *

Hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...

* Hummingbird * Hydra * Hyperjet * Jaguar (Probe) * Mach 2 Expendable Target * Mach 2 Recoverable Target * Mercury * Midas * Minuteman * MORT (Fleet Training) * NERV * Nike-Zeus * NORT (Fleet Training) * Ozarc * Pershing * Phoenix *

* Rella * Samos-Atlas * Scout *

Sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

* Sidewinder * Sparrow III * Sunflare * Talos *

Tartar Tartar may refer to: Places * Tartar (river), a river in Azerbaijan * Tartar, Switzerland, a village in the Grisons * Tərtər, capital of Tartar District, Azerbaijan * Tartar District, Azerbaijan * Tartar Island, South Shetland Islands, Ant ...

* Tepee * Terrier I * Thor * Tiros *

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

* Tophat * Transit * Tumbleweed * Typhon

Notes

References

* *

External links

Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands
official website

NMB Barking Sands Installation Overview
at NavyUSA.org

at GlobalSecurity.org * {{authority control Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Hawaii Airports in Hawaii Buildings and structures in Kauai County, Hawaii Guided missiles Kauai Missile defense Rocket launch sites in the United States Installations of the United States Navy in Hawaii Military airbases established in 1940 1940 establishments in Hawaii