Conduct flawless missile warning and space control operations, provide unsurpassed installation support and protection, while developing and deploying Warrior Airmen to defend America and our Allies.

The 21st Space Wing is the Air Force's only organization providing missile warning and space control to unified commanders and combat forces worldwide. The 21st SW provides missile warning and space control to NORAD and U.S. Strategic Command through a network of command and control units and ground and space-based sensors operated by geographically separated units around the world.

Members of the 21st SW operate and maintain a complex system of U.S. and foreign-based radars. These space warriors detect and track ballistic missile launches; deployments of new space systems; and provide data on foreign ballistic missile events. Today, ballistic missile warning is critically important to U.S. military forces. At least 20 nations currently have nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, and the technology to deliver them over long distances. According to intelligence estimates, during the next 10 years, several Third World countries will develop the technology and capability to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles at the United States.

The 21st SW's ground-based missile warning sites employ solid state phased-array radar systems. Their mission is to detect sea-launched ballistic missile and ICBM attacks against the continental United States and Canada, and determine the potential number and probable destination of these missiles. The wing has Space Warning Squadrons at Cape Cod Air Force Station, Mass., Beale AFB, Calif., Cavalier Air Force Station, N.D., Thule Air Base, Greenland, and Clear AFS, Alaska. The wing has a liaison at the missile warning site at Royal Air Force Fylingdales, UK as well. All these sites provide continual space control information as part of an integrated global network of missile warning systems. Missile warning data from these sites are sent to U.S. Strategic Command's Missile Correlation Center at Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Colo. Data are also sent to the National Military Command Center and USSTRATCOM's Global Operations Center.

Three of the missile warning sites employ a specific type of phased-array radar called the Pave Phased- Array Warning System (Pave PAWS). The radar works by sending out a beam formed from several transmitters eliminating the need to move or rotate the radar. The Pave PAWS radar can electronically change its point of focus in milliseconds, while conventional dish-shaped radar may take up to a minute to mechanically swing from one area to another. Raytheon builds the Pave PAWS radars, and deployed the first AN/FPS-115 model during the early 1980s. These roughly 90-foot diameter circular-panel radars are mounted on two or more walls of a triangular-shaped pyramid structure. Pave PAWS radars can detect and track targets at ranges approaching 3,000 miles. There were originally four continental United States sites. Two of the original CONUS sites, the 6th SWS at Cape Cod AFS, and the 7th SWS at Beale AFB, are still in operation, and their radars were recently upgraded to the higher-power, more-capable AN/FPS-123 model. The 7th SWS recently completed a weapon system update called Upgraded Early Warning Radar. UEWR added the corollary mission of Missile Defense in support of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. This program's objective is the defense of the United States against a threat of a limited strategic ballistic missile attack through the use of intercept missiles located at Vandenberg AFB, CA. and Fort Greely, AK. The other two CONUS sites at Robins AFB, Ga. and Eldorado AFS, Texas have now ceased operations. The radar from Eldorado AFS was relocated to the 13th SWS at Clear AFS, replacing the older Ballistic Missile Early Warning System mechanical radar there. The Clear AFS Pave PAWS radar also has been upgraded to the AN/FPS-123 model. Similar radars replaced the BMEWS mechanical radars at the 12th SWS at Thule AB, and at Fylingdales. Thule AB received an AN/FPS-120 model, while RAF Fylingdales received an AN/FPS-126 model. The AN/FPS-126 is unique, having three radar faces covering 360 degrees in azimuth, while the AN/FPS-120 and AN/FPS-123 models each have two radar faces covering 240 degrees in azimuth. Even though none of the BMEWS mechanical radars are still in operation, for programmatic reasons Thule AB is still referred to as BMEWS Site I, Clear AFS is referred to at BMEWS Site II, and Fylingdales is referred to as BMEWS Site III. The 10th SWS at Cavalier AFS, N.D., uses a slightly different type of phased-array radar called a Perimeter Attack Radar Characterization System, or PARCS. Its single face points northward over the Hudson Bay, covering 120 degrees in azimuth. It provides tactical warning, and attack characterization and assessment of SLBMs and ICBMs. This includes the number and types of missiles in a raid, and the earliest and next impact times for locations in the continental U.S. It is the only missile warning sensor that reports this type of information.

Space control is defined as the combat, combat support, and combat service support operations necessary to ensure freedom of action in space for the United States and its allies and, when directed, to deny an adversary freedom of action in space. Space surveillance is a critical part of the 21st SW's space control mission and will be vitally important in supporting future theater missile operations and assuring availability of U.S. space forces. Operation IRAQI FREEDOM proved once again that whoever controls the high ground has definite military advantage. Space surveillance involves detecting, tracking, cataloging, and identifying man-made objects orbiting Earth, i.e. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris.