Air Force: A $90 Million Mistake

Who would place a $90 million, high-powered radar station so close to an airport that it has to be shut down every time a plane lands? Someone, it turns out, who should know better: the U.S. Air Force Space Command. The problem exists at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, where a giant early- warning radar searches for missiles launched from submarines. But the apparatus is only 1.5 miles from the approach end of a runway, and Air Force electronic engineers fear that its emissions could trigger electromagnetic explosive devices on many military aircraft. Those devices are used mainly to discharge fuel tanks or fire air-to-air weapons. To guard against accidental explosions, the radar is manually shut down for up to 90 seconds whenever a plane approaches the field.

While the Air Force insists that electronic flight-control circuits inside its aircraft are shielded against radar and radio emissions, it closed the radar station completely during a precision-flying exhibition in November by its Thunderbirds aerobatic team. Several Army BlackHawk helicopters have crashed when their pilots flew too close to radio antennas elsewhere and lost control of their choppers. The Air Force has now compiled a list of 300 powerful radio transmitters in the U.S. that its pilots must avoid by a certain distance. The list is secret.