General Electric AN/FPS-7 Radar

The AN/FPS-7 Radar was a Long Range Search Radar used by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command.

In the mid-1950s General Electric developed a radar with a search altitude of 100,000 feet and a range of 270 miles. This radar was significant in that it was the first stacked-beam radar to enter into production in the United States. The antenna was fed signals from several feed horns arranged in a vertical stack, producing a series of horizontal beams separated vertically in space. By comparing the returns from the different feeds, altitude information could be determined without the need for a separate height-finder radar.

Designed to operate in the L-band at 1250 to 1350 MHz, the radar deployed in late 1959 and the early 1960s. The AN/FPS-7 was used for both air defense and air traffic control in New York, Kansas City, Houston, Spokane, San Antonio, and elsewhere.

In the early 1960s a modification called AN/ECP-91 was installed to improve its electronic countermeasure (ECM) capability. About thirty units were produced. Another modification was the AN/FPS-107 which also operated in the L-Band which was manufactured by Westinghouse.

Classification of radar systems
Under the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), all U.S. military radar and tracking systems are assigned a unique identifying alphanumeric designation. The letters “AN” (for Army-Navy) are placed ahead of a three-letter code.
 * The first letter of the three-letter code denotes the type of platform hosting the electronic device, where A=Aircraft, F=Fixed (land-based), S=Ship-mounted, and T=Ground transportable.
 * The second letter indicates the type of equipment, where P=Radar (pulsed), Q=Sonar, and R=Radio.
 * The third letter indicates the function or purpose of the device, where G=Fire control, R=Receiving, S=Search, and T=Transmitting.

Thus, the AN/FPS-7 represents the 7th design of an Army-Navy “Fixed, Radar, Search” electronic device.