North Oscura Peak
Coordinates: 33°45′08″N 106°22′19″W / 33.75222°N 106.37194°W
North Oscura Peak, of the Oscura Mountains in Socorro County, New Mexico is the location of an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) site in the northern portion of the White Sands Missile Range.
North Oscura Peak was a former Army missile tracking site. Designed to withstand rocket strikes, the walls at the site are 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, with 1,200 tons of concrete embedded six feet in bedrock. The Directed Energy Directorate refurbished the site in June 1997, spending approximately $700,000 to repair the buildings, bring in the telescope, build a clean room, and install lasers, advanced optics, computers and test instrumentation. The budget also included improvements to the receiver station at Salinas Peak, where three portable shelters, an electronics room and an optics room were installed.
The facility is designed to assemble and evaluate advanced sensor, tracking and atmospheric compensation systems. In 2002 the goal was to improve the ability of the United States Air Force to track missiles and then efficiently transmit laser energy through the atmosphere to destroy them. The site is managed by the AFRL−Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate, headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, about 140 miles (230 km) to the north.
Overall, 40 people are working on the project, most of whom reside in offices at the Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, about 140 miles (230 km) away. Six to eight people work at the site with four of them there full-time.
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