The 12th Space Warning Squadron is a

United States Space Force The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and the world's only independent space force. Along with its sister branch, the U.S. Air Force, the Space ...

ground-based radar used for

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

warning, missile defense, and space situation awareness, stationed at

Thule Air Base Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north o ...

, Greenland.

Overview

The primary mission of the 12th SWS is to provide critical, real-time missile warning, defense, and space surveillance to the President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, NORAD, and unified commands by operating a phased-array radar—which continuously provides warning of

submarine-launched ballistic missile A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a nuclear warhead ...

(SLBM) and

intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

attacks against North America—and detect, track, and identify earth-orbiting objects in support of USSTRATCOM's space control mission, thus "knitting a blanket of freedom". The 12th Space Warning Squadron is a unit of the

Space Delta 4 Space Delta 4 (DEL 4) is a United States Space Force unit responsible for providing strategic and theater missile warning to the United States and its international partners. It operates three constellations of Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) s ...

which is under

Air Force Space Command The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. To accomplish its mission, the squadron operates the solid-state phased-array radar located at the

Ballistic Missile Early Warning System The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, "474L System", Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system, for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve ra ...

(BMEWS), Site I. The BMEWS site is located approximately 11 miles northwest of Thule AB . It provides early warning detection of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches from the Russian land mass and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launches from the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans against North America. Additionally, BMEWS keeps track of polar orbiting satellites. The operational crews report through the Missile Warning Center to the NORAD/USNORTHCOM Center. The Operation Support Flight (DOO) provides direct operational support to the missile warning crews. The flight's Operations Training Section (DOT) provides all crew force initial, recurring, and supplemental training. Other flight responsibilities include hardware, software and maintenance support (MA), operational test and evaluation (DOV), and crew force management (DOU).

History

The 12th SWS was formed in January 1967 as a successor organization to the

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was est ...

931st Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, which was inactivated at the end of 1965. The 931st AC&WS operated a series of Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) radar sites in Greenland to detect intrusion of unknown aircraft. The squadron relayed information to the 64th NORAD Region

Semi Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...

(SAGE) system DC-31 Direction Center, and interceptor squadrons stationed at Thule Air Base. With the development of ICBM and SLBM technologies, the mission to monitor aircraft coming over the horizon from the Soviet Union was transferred to other units, and the 931st AC&WS at Thule AB was inactivated.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 12th Missile Warning Squadron on 1 November 1966 : Activated on 1 January 1967 : Redesignated 12th Missile Warning Group on 31 March 1977 : Redesignated 12th Missile Warning Squadron on 15 June 1983 : Redesignated 12th Missile Warning Group on 1 October 1989 : Redesignated 12th Space Warning Squadron on 15 May 1992

Assignments

* 71st Missile Warning Wing, 1 January 1967 * Fourteenth Aerospace Force, 30 April 1971 *

21st Air Division The 21st Air Division (21st AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Tactical Air Command, being stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base, New York. It was inactivated on 23 September 1983. History World W ...

, 1 October 1976 *

Aerospace Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly inac ...

, 1 October 1979 * 40th Air Division, 1 December 1979 *

1st Space Wing The 1st Space Wing was a wing of the United States Air Force active from 1983 to 1992 at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado as part of Air Force Space Command.21st Operations Group Space Delta 2 (DEL 2) is the United States Space Force's space domain awareness delta and is headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. Space Delta 2 tracks and monitors all manmade objects from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit ...

, 15 May 1992 *

21st Space Wing The 21st Space Wing (21 SW) was the United States Space Force's ground–based missile warning and space control wing. The 21st Space Wing was assigned to Space Operations Command and headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. The 21st ...

, 1 June 1995 *

21st Operations Group Space Delta 2 (DEL 2) is the United States Space Force's space domain awareness delta and is headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. Space Delta 2 tracks and monitors all manmade objects from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit ...

, 1 August 1999 *

, 24 July 2020 – Present

Bases stationed

, Greenland, 1 January 1967 – present

Equipment operated

(BMEWS)12th Space Warning Squadron Fact Sheet

List of commanders

References

* A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado * Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.

External links

Thule AFB: 821st Space Group Official Homepage
{{USAF Space Command Squadrons of the United States Space Force Aerospace Defense Command units Greenland