Missile Site Radar (MSR) prototype

 military, radar station

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The Missile Site Radar (MSR) was originally developed as part of the Nike-X project. It was intended to be a simple short-range radar system primarily tasked with the initial tracking of the Sprint missiles as they launched towards their ICBM targets. The main engagement would be handled by the far more sophisticated Multi-function Array Radar (MAR), a prototype of which was built on Kwajalein Island, south of here.

As the difficultly of the anti-ballistic missile mission grew along with the numbers of ICBMs being built, the Defense Department looked for less expensive options. They eventually settled on the Sentinel program, which was intended to provide a lightweight defense against small attacks by China or accidental launches by the Soviets. This eliminated the need for the sophisticated MAR, and most of the interception task was instead passed on to the much simpler, and cheaper, MSR. The MSR had to be upgraded to provide longer range to fill this role. The MAR being constructed on Kwajalein was abandoned at this point.

The Meck MSR buildings also housed all the launch operations control, in the smaller level on the south-east (bottom right).