ALTAIR (Radar)

ALTAIR (ARPA Long-Range Tracking And Instrumentation Radar) is a radar tracking station on Roi-Namur island in the north part of the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands. It is a high-sensitivity, wide-bandwidth, coherent, instrumentation and tracking radar that is capable of collecting precise measurements on small targets at long-ranges. ALTAIR supports several operating modes, including tracking and signature collection at VHF and UHF. It is part of a network of contributing radar sensors that perform deep-space tracking.

The antenna uses a steerable 150-ft dish (46-m-diameter) and employs a focal point VHF feed and multimode Cassegrain UHF feed in conjunction with a frequency selective sub-reflector (5.5 m diameter).

The radar became operational in 1969. The original task was to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is currently used to measure satellite orbits and meteor echoes in low-Earth orbit, and to observe ionospheric irregularities and background densities.