FPS-10

 long range Combo Radar Set - A long-range Combo Radar set (search + height-finder) manufactured by the General Electric Company. Two separate antennas, one for early warning (EW) detection and the other slanted 45 degrees to provide target height (HF). The HF radar used five transmitters that operated at S-band frequencies ranging from 2700 to 3019 MHz to detect target altitude. Variants included the CPS-6, CPS-6A, and the CPS-6B. This set is a stripped down version of the CPS-6B variant using identical components. Adapted From MIL-HDBK-162A: "Radar Set FPS-10 is a fixed-station, air transportable, high-power, long-range search and height-finding radar that is used for aircraft early warning and GCI applications. This radar set has a maximum range of 265 naut mi and a height-finding capability of 40,000 ft. Facilities are provided for use of advanced filter techniques that eliminate the time lag inherent in passing plots through a filter room. The FPS-10 has provisions for optional use of video mapping, direction finding, and identification equipment. Terminal facilities are also provided for voice, code or teletype, and radio or wire communications. This radar set is equipped with moving target indication and many remote operating facilities."

"Radar Set FPS-10 is similar to Radar Set CPS-6B, differing only in the number of indicators used in the absence of B-scan indicators, and in the telephone system. The CPS-6B has more indicators, and its telephone system is supplied as part of the equipment."

Deployment
As the Korean War escalated and tensions rose between the U.S., China, and Russia in the early 1950s, the U.S. Air Force began to replace the Lashup Radar System with a more permanent radar network. The available FPS-10s were deployed to at least thirteen CONUS locations as a part of this Permanent System. The CPS-6Bs and FPS-10s were said to have been deployed in pairs, two on a single site (Winkler and Radomes below). The majority of these sites became operational in 1952 with Blaine Air Force Station recorded as the first one operational on 14 Mar 1951. Some FPS-10s remained operational into the 1960s.

"Note: Other historical records indicate that what was construed as a second CPS-6B or FPS-10 may have been a modification to the CPS-6B and the FPS-10 that provided 'an auxiliary early warning search set, to the production model of the 6B, which would work independently of the other components. This modification involved the addition of a third antenna solely concerned with early warning transmission, the other two antennas being concerned with solid search and height-finding.' This makes much more sense than deploying two CPS-6Bs or FPS-10s to each site and it is the only way that the numbers procured match the numbers deployed."

FPS-10 Radar
See Also:
 * US Radar Sets
 * CPS-6B

Sources:
 * , page 75-76 (CPS-6B), page 77 (FPS-10).
 * The Air Defense of the United States, a study of the work of Air Defense Command: and its predecessors through June 1951, Directorate of Historical Services, Air Defense Command, Feb 52, Classified Secret now Declassified, page 105.
 * MIL-HDBK-162A, 15 Dec 1965.

Links:
 * Radomes - Radar Equipment