From here you can see a large odd building measuring approximately 200ftx200ft at the base and 120ft high. Often referred to as the second tallest building in ND, second to the state capital building. Activated April 1975 and deactivated February 1976. In 1977 the USAF acquired it and named it Concrete Missile Early Warning System then in 1983 was renamed Cavalier Air Force Station after the Post Office in Concrete closed. You are looking at the Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System (PARCS). It started out as one of the sites for the Stanley R. Mickelson Safeguard Complex for anti-ballistic missile defense before being turned over to the USAF. It would acquire incoming enemy missile warheads and pass that information to launch and tracking controls for the Spartan and Sprint Missiles. (There is a full scale model of a Spartan Missile at the NE corner of Cavalier) It's phased array radar in operation can spot a basketball 2000 miles away. Currently it is part of the 21st Space Wing out of Colorado. It analyzes more than 20,000 tracks per day, over 1/2 of the Earth orbiting satellites and space junk. The main radar contains almost 7000 elements and is the second most powerful Phased array radar in the USAF surveillance system. The road that you are on is known to the locals as Cancer Road. The building also houses 5-16 cylinder generators that can produce 14 megawatts of power.
Logging Task: In order to get credit for this cache, please take a picture of yourself (you don't need to include your face in the picture) with the radar in the back ground and add it to your log.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.