Pacific Missile Range Facility

Located in the State of Hawaii on the western shores of Kauai, the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands Airport codes|BKH|PHBK is the world's largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range. US Military and subcontractors favor its relative isolation, ideal year-round tropical climate and encroachment-free environment (see "PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative" below). PMRF is the only range in the world where submarines, surface ships, aircraft and space vehicles can operate and be tracked simultaneously. There are over convert|1100|sqmi|km2|-2 of instrumented underwater range and over convert|42000|sqmi|km2|-3 of controlled airspace. The base itself covers roughly 2,385 acres (9.7 km²).

The base includes a convert|6000|ft|m|-2|sing=on 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 1100 acre (4.5 km²) Test Vehicle Recovery Site, the Perch Electronic Warfare site, multiple EW Portable Simulator sites, and a Helicopter Terrain Flight training course.

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 USS Ethan Allen, which was situated near PMRF. The nuclear warhead flew toward Christmas Island and detonating in an airburst at convert|11000|ft|m|-2.

The Navy is currently using PMRF to test hit to kill technology using direct collision of the interceptor missile with the target [http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/pdf/05news0010.pdf] . This destroys the target by using only kinetic energy from the force of the collision. The two Missile Defense Agency programs which 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 26th January, 2007.

On April 27, 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 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 and Kauai County to ensure the long-term viability of PMRF. For many decades, the land adjacent to PMRF was used for sugarcane 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 purposes. Under the [http://www.hawaii.navy.mil/PMRF/PMRF_AgricultureInitiative.htm PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative] the Navy would have the roughly 6,000 acres (24 km²) of land adjacent to PMRF preserved solely for agricultural use. Although the Navy has stated that it would like to lease about 300 acres (1.2 km²) 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.

See also

*Eastern Test Range

References

External links

* [http://www.pmrf.navy.mil/ Pacific Missile Range Facility official website]
* [http://www.hawaii.navy.mil/PMRF/PMRF_AgricultureInitiative.htm PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative]