Army/Navy Transportable Pulse-Radar Search-32 (AN/TPS-32) was a three-dimensional, tactical long-range surveillance radar operated by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

from the early 1970s through the early 1990s. Developed by ITT Gilfillan in

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, the radar was the primary sensor for the Marine Corps' Tactical Air Operations Center (TAOC) and was optimized to work in concert with the MIM-23 Hawk Missile System and the Marine Tactical Data System.

Development

Development of the AN/TPS-32 began with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was to ...

in the 1950s. It was meant to be a next generation, mobile radar capable of supporting Marine Corps forces during amphibious operations. The TPS-32 was a major improvement in radar technology for the Marine Corps. It was the service's second three dimensional radar providing range, azimuth and altitude from one array thus precluding the need for a separate Height-finder radar. Unlike the old mechanically scanned arrays that utilized analog technology, the TPS-32 was 90% digital, solid-state electronics possessing a phased

Antenna array An antenna array (or array antenna) is a set of multiple connected antennas which work together as a single antenna, to transmit or receive radio waves. The individual antennas (called ''elements'') are usually connected to a single receiver ...

. Also new for the design of this radar was the use of three

crossed-field amplifier A crossed-field amplifier (CFA) is a specialized vacuum tube, first introduced in the mid-1950s and frequently used as a microwave amplifier in very-high-power transmitters. Raytheon engineer William C. Brown's work to adapt magnetron principles ...

s as the

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

s in the very-high-power

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

. They replaced the cavity magnetrons utilized on earlier radar sets. The AN/TPS-32 was delivered to Marine Air Control Squadron 3 (MACS-3) in 1969 for final operational testing. MACS-3 was re-designated as the

Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity The Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity (MCTSSA) is the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Intelligence (C4I) Integration center for the United States Marine Corps. They are a component of ...

(MCTSSA) in 1970 and continued testing. The radar entered service in the Fleet Marine Force in 1972. In the 1980s, the Marine Corps began to seek a replacement for both the AN/TPS-32 and MTDS. Development continued throughout the 1980s at Marine Air Control Squadron 1 (MACS-1). Following the Gulf War, the TPS-32 was replaced in the Marine Corps inventory by the

AN/TPS-59 The AN/FPS-117 is an L-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) 3-dimensional air search radar first produced by GE Aerospace in 1980 and now part of Lockheed Martin. The system offers instrumented detection at ranges on the order of and h ...

Units that utilized the TPS-32

* MACS-2 * MACS-4 * MACS-5 * MACS-6 * MACS-7 * MACS-24 *

References

External links

USMC Archival footage of an operational AN/TPS-32 in May 1978
{{DEFAULTSORT:AN TPS-32 Ground radars United States Marine Corps equipment Military radars of the United States Military radars of the United States Marine Corps Military equipment introduced in the 1960s

Development

Units that utilized the TPS-32

See also

References

External links