AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy -- The 31st Operations Support Squadron ground radar systems team is preparing to replace a motor on a digital airport surveillance radar system July 27, 2016, at Aviano Air Base, Italy.
Airmen from the team noticed a troubling sound coming from one of the two motors that power the system. After some troubleshooting, the team determined the entire motor needed to be replaced.
The DASR system detects aircraft positions and weather conditions within 60 nautical miles of Aviano. It’s also part of a grid network of DASRs that track all aircraft flying over the European continent.
“This system is used by the air traffic control and radar approach and control teams,” said Senior Airman Checotah Lovelace, 31st OSS ground radar systems technician. “It’s a key part to ensuring all aircraft fly safely through Aviano’s airspace.”
The system consists of a primary and secondary radar. The primary radar transmits electromagnetic waves, to and from the aircraft.
“The primary radar measures the time required for a wave echo to return and the direction of the echo’s signal,” said Staff Sgt. Adam Gagnon, 31st OSS NCO in charge of ground radar systems. “From this data the system can then measure the distance of the aircraft from the radar and the direction the aircraft is heading.”
The secondary radar assigns each aircraft a special identity code detects its altitude and speed.
“Unlike the primary radar, the secondary radar relies on aircraft equipped with a radar transponder,” said Tech. Sgt. Derek Pace, 31st OSS air traffic control watch supervisor. “The special identity code allows us to sort out who’s who. In a wartime environment this code is crucial to identifying friendly and enemy aircraft.”
Because of the importance of the information the DASR system provides, it must be impenetrable and on its own network infrastructure to prevent an adversary from tampering with it.
“It’s crucial that the information received by the radars goes directly to the ATC tower without interference,” said Lovelace. “If and enemy were to hack into the DASR system, they would know where our aircrafts are.”
The systems inoperable motor hasn’t stopped the DASR system from supporting the 31st Fighter Wing mission.
“In order to stay mission-capable the system has duplicates of each piece of equipment,” explained Gagnon. “When we disassembled the broken motor the other motor immediately kicked on. The installation of this new motor will help keep our jets safe and on our radars.”