KREMS radar facility

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KREMS, short for Kiernan Reentry Measurements System, is a series of radars and other instruments used to study the re-entry behaviour of ICBMs.

The site was originally created by ARPA (now DARPA) as part of Project PRESS to look for ways to distinguish the warheads from various radar decoys using their signatures and physical interaction with the upper atmosphere. First among the KREMS systems was TRADEX, which began operations in 1962. ALTAIR followed in 1969, and was designed to operate on the same frequencies as Soviet radars in order to better understand how US warheads appeared to their radars. ALCOR followed in 1970, using new signal processing techniques to accurately measure both range and velocity at the same time.

Although PRESS ultimately failed to find a reliable way to distinguish warhead from decoy, the radars proved so useful that they were retained as primary long-range tracking systems for what is today the Reagan Test Site (RTS). This included the addition of the MMW radar in 1983, which uses TRADEX as a broadcaster and several receivers, one of which is located in the KREMS site. ALCOR also serves as the RTS' primary weather radar.