U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll Reagan Test Site

1 Yokwe and army Kwajalein AtollReagan Test army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA)A Vital National AssetKwajalein Atoll is part ofthe Republic of theMarshall Islands in thewest central PacificOcean. It lies 2,400miles southwest ofHonolulu, is in the samegeneral latitude as thesouthern Philippines andthe same general longi-tude as New Zealand,approximately 3,200miles to the Atoll lies lessthan 700 miles north ofthe army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA),home to Ronald Reagan Ballistic MissileDefense Test site at Kwajalein Atoll (RTS),operates as a subordinate command of army Space and Missile DefenseCommand. The USAKA commander isresponsible for Kwajalein s and Roi-Namur s more than 2,400 residents, com-prised of military personnel, army civilians,contractor employees, tenants, and familymembers. The use of the Kwajalein Atoll asa missile range is made possible throughlease agreements negotiated with theRepublic of the Marshall is a multi-billion-dollar facility withstate-of-the-art instrumentation unmatchedanywhere in the world.

2 It offers spacetracking and full-envelope strategic andtactical missile testing with the world s mostsophisticated suite of radar, optics, telem-etry, and scoring is west of theinternational date line,making it one day aheadof Hawaii and thecontinental United it s noon Sunday onKwajalein, it s 2 in Honolulu and7 (EST) Saturday onthe East Coast. The workweek on Kwajalein andRoi-Namur is Tuesdaythrough Saturday, tocorrespond to the workweek in the Unique Place to Call HomeKwajalein Atoll is a crescent loop ofcoral reef enclosing an area of 1,100 squaremiles the world s largest lagoon. Situatedon the reef are approximately 100 smallislands with a total land area of squaremiles. Kwajalein Island, the largest in theatoll, is one-half mile wide and three mileslong (approximately square miles inarea). From Kwajalein Island to Roi-Namur, in the north, is about 50 miles;from Kwajalein to Ebadon, in the northwestcorner, it s about 75 miles.

3 The lagoon is 15miles across at its widest 12,000 Marshallesecitizens live within the Atoll , with themajority living on Ebeye, three miles northof Kwajalein . Approximately 1,500 Marshallese are employed by Test SiteA World Class Test FacilityMission: Reagan Test Siteoperates as a major rangeand test facility base,providing strategicNational Missile Defenseand Theater MissileDefense system testing, aswell as sensor systemresearch and developmenttesting. RTS also con-ducts space operations insupport of SpaceCommand and NASA,including space objectidentification, spacesurveillance, and newforeign launch HistoryAt the end of World War II, Kwajaleinwas established as a Navy refueling,supply, and communications station. Abrief flurry of activity supporting KoreanWar operations in the early 1950s andweapons testing a few years later wasfollowed by declining activity that resultedin the station being scheduled for new chapter in its history began in1959, after Kwajalein was selected to bethe test site for the NIKE-ZEUS anti-missile program at the ArmyRocket and Guided Missile Agency.

4 Atabout the same time, the island ofRoi-Namur was chosen for the develop-ment of a center for the Advanced Re-search Project Agency (ARPA) of theDepartment of Defense. This program,designated Project PRESS (Pacific RangeElectromagnetic Signature Studies), hadrelated facilities in California, Hawaii, andWake Island. Naval Station Kwajaleinbecame Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kwajalein , with the army and ARPA astenant July 1964, command of Kwajaleinwas transferred from the Navy to the Armyas Kwajalein Test site (KTS), assigned tothe NIKE-X Project Office at RedstoneArsenal, the SENTINEL Systems Organi-zation was established in 1967, the re-sources and staff of the NIKE-X ProjectOffice, including KTS, were transferred tothe new SENTINEL Systems Kwajalein , successful launchings of theSPARTAN missile took place in March andMay of April 1968, KTS was redesignatedKwajalein Missile Range (KMR).

5 Thefollowing year, the SENTINEL SystemsCommand was redesignated SAFEGUARDS ystems Command. Under this program, tests were conducted using SPRINT andSPARTAN missile May 1974, the SAFEGUARDS ystems Command was redesignatedBallistic Missile Defense Systems Com-mand (BMDSC) under the Ballistic MissileDefense Organization (BMDO). In July1985, BMDSC was redesignated the Strategic Defense Command(USASDC). In May 1986, KMR wasredesignated the United States ArmyKwajalein Atoll (USAKA). This changereflected the USAKA commander sexpanded role under the Compact of FreeAssociation, a document that defines thespecial relationship between the andthe Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI)and the roles and responsibilities of part of this change, the USAKA RangeCommand was established as a tenantcommand, responsible for range testoperations. In March 1991, USAKA RangeCommand was redesignated KwajaleinMissile a result of a 1999 resolution by theRepublic of the Marshall Islands Nitijela(Congress) requesting a name changehonoring President Ronald Reagan , the106th Congress passed a bill designat-ing the Kwajalein Missile Range as theRonald Reagan Ballistic Missile DefenseTest site at Kwajalein Atoll .

6 The namechange became official on the army s226th birthday, June 15, 2001. For the sakeof brevity, the Range is called the ReaganTest site (RTS). The SMDC deputycommander is the national range com-mander for s tenants include the MissileDefense Agency, army Space andMissile Defense Command, Global Posi-tioning System, army Corps of Engineers,Federal Aviation Administration, NationalImaging and Mapping Agency, Job Corps,and Department of ContractorsContractorsUSAKA is a government-owned,contractor-operated (GOCO) Kwajalein community consists of asmall contingent of military and govern-ment civilian personnel and their familiesand a large population of contractor person-nel and their families. Two main areassupported by contractors are KwajaleinLogistics Support (KLS) and IntegratedRange Engineering (IRE).The KLS contract provides range andcommunity support, including medical anddental care, religious services, schools,retail merchandising, housing, recreationalactivities, food services, newspaper, radioand TV, fire fighting, supply services,power plant and other facilities, and air,sea, and land IRE contract provides operationand maintenance of RTS instrumentationand the Kiernan Re-Entry MeasurementSite (KREMS) radars.

7 Range instrumenta-tion includes radars, telemetry, photo-optics,and communications systems. KREMS, onRoi-Namur, is the most sophisticated andimportant research and developmentradar site , consisting of four one-of-a-kindinstrumentation radars: TRADEX, ALCOR,ALTAIR, and MMW. These systems trackmissiles and space objects, collectingsophisticated data. For many years,KREMS has played a role in collecting dataassociated with intercontinental ballisticmissile testing and space tracking. Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology/LincolnLaboratory (MIT/LL) is the scientificadvisor to the contractors at Kwajalein providebanking, weather, travel, and securityservices. The army Corps of Engi-neers oversees construction is the weather like?Situated less than 700 miles north of theequator, Kwajalein Atoll has a tropicalmarine climate characterized by relativelyhigh annual rainfall (averaging over 100inches) and warm to hot, humid weatherthroughout the year.

8 Temperatures varylittle. Because of the low latitude, there areonly slight seasonal variations in the altitudeof the sun and amount of daylight anddarkness. The resulting small variation insolar energy and the marine influence arethe principal reasons for the very slightchange in temperature about twodegrees Fahrenheit between the coolestmonth and the warmest. The average dailytemperature range is about 10 degrees, withhighs of about 87 degrees in the earlyafternoon and lows of about 77 degrees inthe early , You re Moving to Kwajalein AtollYou Have QuestionsThe islands are ..warm, sunny days, palmtrees swaying in thetrade winds, blue water,and white beaches ..co-existing withstate-of-the-art radars,optical tracking systems,communications systems,and isolated, Kwajalein appearssimilar to many American communities, butthere are some notable differences betweenour communities and stateside manage the stores, restaurants,police and fire departments, hospital,schools, utilities, recreation, airport, andharbor.

9 Traffic is far lighter than in mostsmall towns. There are no privately ownedautomobiles; bicycles are the standardmeans of , the first day of the weekend, isthe primary day for religious observances,and Monday, the second day of the week-end, is a day for shopping, recreation, yardwork, and patio rainy season extends frommid-May to mid-December. About 75percent of the annual rainfall is recordedduring this period. September, October, andNovember are the wettest months. Lighteasterly winds, almost constant cloudiness,and frequent moderate to heavy showersprevail during the wet dry, windy season extends frommid-December to mid-May and is charac-terized by frequent sunny days and somelight showers of short duration. In thisseason, the trade winds are persistent,blowing almost continuously from thenortheast at 15 to 20 storms and damaging winds areuncommon in the vicinity of KwajaleinAtoll.

10 However, weak depressions mayform nearby during any season. Some ofthese intensify and eventually develop intotyphoons, after moving away depressions can cause heavy rainfallat Kwajalein I need any immunizations orvaccines to go to Kwajalein Atoll ?It is recommended, but not required,that adults coming to Kwajalein Atollreceive a baseline TB skin test and aHepatitis A vaccination. All adults should becurrent on standard immunizations andshould make sure that their shot records children up to five years of age,routine preschool vaccinations are required to have a baselineTB skin test, the Hepatitis B series and thechicken pox vaccination (or documentationof having had chicken pox) to enter theKwajalein school system. Students shouldalso be current on standard immunizationsand have up-to-date shot immunizations and vaccina-tions, as well as a limited variety of othersthat may be required for vacation destina-tions, are available at Kwajalein to ShipHousehold NeedsDishes, glassware,silverware, cookingutensils, and smallappliances are notprovided.