With Chinese Balloons Maybe We Need This Base Re-Activated
WIth Chinese surveillance balloons and Russian threats of nuclear annihilation, maybe it's time to look at re-activating an abandoned important early warning radar system just 35 miles south of San Angelo in El Dorado.
There are a lot of places around the country where you can see abandoned nuclear missile silos.
We have something much more prominent here in West Texas, just 35 miles from San Angelo down Highway 277 just off County Road 302 near El Dorado. Here at the former site of El Dorado Air Force Base, you can find an unusual structure.
It almost looks like a pyramid. The desert tan structure is ten stories high.
They called them PAVE PAWS. This was an acronym for Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry Phased Array radar Warning System. The purpose of this Cold War era installation was to watch, on highly sophisticated radar, for the approach of nuclear-equipped bombers headed for targets in the United States.
This installation was aimed southward. It scanned a 3000-mile-wide corridor for possible surprise missile or bomber intrusion across Latin America or across from the Gulf of Mexico.
Seeing an attack in time would give us time to scramble bombers and fighters in response. The PAVE PAWS system became part of the U.S. Space Command's Missle Warning and Space Control Centers at the infamous Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base near Colorado Springs.
This array in El Dorado was one of only four such systems in the United States. The other three were at Cape Cod Air Force Base in Massachusetts, Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia, and Beale Air Force Base in California.
Any detection of a nuclear strike from this radar would have been transmitted to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
This PAVE PAWS system in El Dorado was built in the 1980s and cost more than $200 million dollars. It became fully operational in 1987 and was used until 1995. Then many of its ultra-sensitive components were shipped to bases in Alaska.
This incredibly significant site still belongs to the United States Air Force. It has fallen into disrepair and is no longer used. Over the years, there have been attempts by local officials to utilize the property for the benefit of citizens in the area.
In 1995, local officials even visited then-Governor George W. Bush and asked if the facility could be made into a training or vocational center. Nothing happened. The Air Force's official stance is that they are keeping the property in case conditions change that would necessitate its reactivation.
I'm thinking if the Chinese keep sending nefarious balloons over the area and Russia keeps trying to swallow up its neighbors and threatening the world with nuclear annihilation if we try to stop them, perhaps that's a good idea;
The next time you're traveling down Highway 277 and you see this large structure in the distance, now you know the full story.
