Cavalier Air Force Station
EPARCS at Cavalier Air Force Station
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| Country of origin | US |
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| Introduced | 1975 |
| Number built | 1 |
| Type | phased array radar |
 phased array under construction with equipment in front (without antenna measuring radar)
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1972 PAR Building (Time magazine)
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The AN/FPQ-16 Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System (PARCS or EPARCS) is a powerful phased-array radar system located in North Dakota. It is the most powerful of the US Air Force's fleet of five radars used for missile warning and space surveillance.
PARCS was built by General Electric as the Perimeter Acquisition Radar (PAR), part of the US Army's Safeguard Program anti-ballistic missile system. PAR provided early warning of incoming ICBMs at ranges up to 2,000 miles (3,200 km), feeding data to the interceptor station, equipped with a shorter-range radar. The PAR and other systems were collectively known as the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex. With the signing of the ABM Treaty in 1972, the U.S. was limited to a single ABM base protecting missile fields, and a second partially completed PAR in Montana was abandoned in-place. In 1975 the House Appropriations Committee voted to close Mickelsen and shut down Safeguard, which occurred in July 1976.
After Mickelsen was shut down, the Air Force's Aerospace Defense Command took over the PAR site and re-activated it in 1977 in the early warning role. It was later transferred to Strategic Air Command. The site was known as the Concrete Missile Early Warning System (CMEWS) after the nearby town of Concrete, but when that town's post office closed in 1983 it became the current Cavalier Air Force Station. The satellite tracking role was later added, and in that mission PARCS monitors and tracks over half of all earth-orbiting objects. PARCS was initially slated for closure in 1992, but was instead upgraded with newer electronics to become EPARCs.
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Wikipedia