Posted on 10/20/2016 4:48:54 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Many keen-eyed residents may have noticed that one of the common sights of the local skyline, the aerostat on Fort Huachuca, has been missing from the skies above Sierra Vista for the last several weeks.
After five years of serving as an important link in a chain of detection spanning the length of the international border, the most recent iteration of the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) has been brought down for regular comprehensive maintenance after reaching the end of its life cycle, said Robert Brown, TARS program manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which has operated the airborne radar program for the last three years.
“All of our aerostats, particularly with the balloon, they’re not indefinite, they have a life cycle. We flew the Fort Huachuca aerostat to the end of its life cycle,” Brown said Wednesday,
The tethered aerostat radar system (TARS), as seen with it’s docking nose cage, floats above the fixed mooring system on Fort Huachuca. The aerostat was initially constructed on Fort Huachuca and has been in existence since 1984. MARK.LEVY@SVHERALD.COM/file This most recent model has been in place since the previous aerostat came crashing down in pieces into several Sierra Vista neighborhoods about five years ago.
The scheduled maintenance of the aerostat includes extensive repair and replacement of key parts, such as the balloon, and offers an opportunity for a full system review, including the mooring equipment on the 28-acre site of operations below.
“We do a comprehensive inspection of the radar and repair or replace anything needed,” Brown said. “It’s just an opportunity to do a stem-to-stern, full technical inspection.”
When fully deployed, the helium-filled TARS aerostat typically floats about 10,000 feet above sea level, transmitting data from its 2,200-pound radar system about both aerial and ground vehicle incursions into the United States to CBP officials in southern California. Officials there can then coordinate local responses or even work with Mexican authorities to help pinpoint drug smuggling activities.
Five other TARS sites situated along the border provide overlapping coverage of the entire international boundary, with radar penetrating about 200 miles into Mexico at the Fort Huachuca site.
Brown said CBP plans to have the aerostat back up in the air as soon as maintenance is completed, but did not offer a specific timetable.
“It will be flying again as quickly as we can complete our maintenance,” he said.
The TARS program remains fully funded through 2021.
What, they don’t have backups to put up while servicing?
Budapest by Blimp...
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