Pacific Missile Range Facility
Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands | |||||||
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Near Kekaha, Hawaii in the United States | |||||||
Coordinates | 22°01′22″N 159°47′06″W / 22.02278°N 159.78500°W | ||||||
Type | Test & training range and airfield | ||||||
Area | 42,000 square miles (110,000 km2) (controlled airspace) 1,100 square miles (2,800 km2) (underwater range) | ||||||
Site information | |||||||
Owner | Department of Defense | ||||||
Operator | US Navy | ||||||
Controlled by | Navy Region Hawaii | ||||||
Condition | Operational | ||||||
Website | Official website | ||||||
Site history | |||||||
Built | 1921 | (for Kekaha Sugar Company)||||||
In use |
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Garrison information | |||||||
Current commander | AMSL | ||||||
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Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] |
The Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands (IATA: BKH, ICAO: PHBK, FAA LID: BKH) is a U.S. naval facility and airport located five nautical miles (9 km) northwest of the central business district of Kekaha, in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States.[1]
PMRF is the world's largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range.
The base includes a 6,000-foot (1,800 m) runway with operations and maintenance facilities. It has roughly 70 housing units and various recreational facilities for those who can access the base.
The base has support facilities at Port Allen,
History
In 1921, the land area known as the Barking Sands was acquired by the
Missile tests
In 1962, the U.S. military conducted the Frigate Bird Test of the Operation Dominic program near PMRF. The military launched an operational ballistic missile with a live warhead from the USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), which was situated near PMRF. The nuclear warhead flew toward Christmas Island and detonated in an air burst at 11,000 feet (3,400 m).
The Navy is currently using PMRF to test "hit to kill" technology using direct collision of the anti-ballistic missile with its target.[4] This destroys the target by using only kinetic energy from the force of the collision. The two Missile Defense Agency programs that currently utilize the range at PMRF are the Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and the Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, or THAAD. The THAAD program relocated their testing operations from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and conducted its first demonstration at PMRF on 26 January 2007.
On 27 April 2007, the U.S. military's sea-based missile defense system, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, showed it could intercept two targets simultaneously when it destroyed a cruise missile and a short-range ballistic missile during a test off the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The test marked eight out of ten times the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy's Aegis missile defense system successfully intercepted its target, but was the first time the system knocked out two targets at the same time.
PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative
The Navy is currently working with the
Operational deployment of THAAD
When North Korea threatened to launch Taepodong-2 ICBMs toward Hawaii in 2009, the US temporarily deployed a THAAD missile unit to the facility.[6]
Range Programs
The range hosted the following programs:[7]
- Able III & IV
- ADTS
- Atlas
- Bullpup (A) & (B)
- Caleb Satellite
- Centaur
- Composite Radiation Satellite
- Corvus I
- Courier
- Discoverer
- Dyna-Soar
- Eagle
- Falcon
- Hawk
- Hummingbird
- Hydra
- Hyperjet
- Jaguar (Probe)
- Mach 2 Expendable Target
- Mach 2 Recoverable Target
- Mercury
- Midas
- Minuteman
- MORT (Fleet Training)
- NERV
- Nike-Zeus
- NORT (Fleet Training)
- Ozarc
- Pershing
- Phoenix
- Regulus I
- Rella
- Samos-Atlas
- Scout
- Sergeant
- Sidewinder
- Sparrow III
- Sunflare
- Talos
- Tartar
- Tepee
- Terrier I
- Thor
- Tiros
- Titan
- Tophat
- Transit
- Tumbleweed
- Typhon
See also
- Eastern Test Range
- radio stationon the grounds of the PMRF
- Hawaii World War II Army Airfields
- List of United States Navy airfields
Notes
- ^ PDF. Federal Aviation Administration. Effective 17 July 2021.
- ^ "Pacific Missile Range Facility". CNIC. US Navy. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
- ^ "History of Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands". Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ "Sea-Based Missile Defense "Hit To Kill" Intercept Achieved" (PDF) (Press release). Missile Defense Agency. 2005-11-17. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
- ^ "PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative" Archived 2014-05-17 at the Wayback Machine NavyUSA.com retrieved 15 May 2014
- ^ Lubold, Gordon (20 June 2009). "What's known about missile shield in Hawaii". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
- ^ Missiles and Rockets, November 21, 1960, p. 14.
References
- This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History. OCLC 72556.
External links
- Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, official website
- PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative
- NMB Barking Sands Installation Overview at NavyUSA.org
- Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) / NS Barking Sands at GlobalSecurity.org
- Resources for this airport:
- FAA airport information for BKH
- AirNav airport information for PHBK
- ASN accident history for BKH
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations for PHBK
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for BKH