Driving on North Dakota’s Highway 5, some perceive a behemoth 12-story radar building standing in the distance as a relic of the Cold War. However, unbeknownst to the passing public, the 10th Space Warning Squadron has undergone rigorous upgrades and modernizations as a culmination of necessity and innovation.
The radar at Cavalier Air Force Station is no stranger to innovation. In 1973, massive rooms in the radar were dedicated to providing the space necessary to house one of the first multiprocessor computers in the world. Considered an engineering marvel at the time, the 48 large metal cabinets have now been replaced by a modernized computer that can fit in a room no bigger than a small storage closet. Extremely complex hardware systems stand idle as emulation software suites now silently provide far superior capabilities.
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