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TheWestern Range (WR)[1] is thespace launch range that supports themajor launch head atVandenberg Space Force Base.[2]: pg 15 Managed by theSpace Launch Delta 30,[3]: pg 25 the WR extends from the West Coast of the United States to 90° east longitude in theIndian Ocean[3]: pg 27 where it meets theEastern Range[4]: pg 10 Operations involve military, government, and commercial interests. The WR has been operated by civilian contractors since its establishment, following the precedent of the Eastern Range. On 1 October 2003, InDyne Inc. took over the range contract fromITT Industries which had operated the range for the previous 44 years.[5]
The Navy established the Naval Missile Facility at Point Arguello (NMFPA) after the transfer from the Army of 19,800 acres from the southern portion of Camp Cooke in May 1958. Camp Cooke was a World War II training and POW facility and a maximum security Disciplinary Barracks site.[6] Cooke Air Force Base, laterVandenberg Space Force Base, was established on 64,000 acres of the northern portion.[6] The Secretary of Defense directed the Navy to establish the Pacific Missile Range (PMR) with headquarters atPoint Mugu and instrumentation sites along the California coast and downrange in the Pacific Ocean.[6] Agreements between the Navy and the Air Force specified that nearly all launches fromVandenberg Space Force Base were under the command and control of Navy and the PMR.[6]
A PacificMissile Impact Location System (MILS) was installed to support bothIntermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) andIntercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests. IRBM impacts were northeast of Hawaii and covered by a system terminating at theMarine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay operational November 1958. The ICBM impacts required MILS monitoring betweenMidway Island andWake Island and between Wake Island andEniwetok. Two target arrays and a Broad Ocean Area (BOA) array system were installed. The ICBM range was operational in May 1959 with two target arrays. MILS shore facilities were at Kaneohe and each of the islands.[7][8]
Secretary of DefenseRobert S. McNamara directed a restructure of the missile ranges on 16 November 1963 with an effective date of 1 July 1964. This restructure shifted responsibility of major sections of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range to the United States Air Force.[6] In a final transfer, on 1 February 1965, the Air Force, with headquarters at Vandenberg Air Force Base, took control ofPillar Point,California, two sites inHawaii,Canton Island,Midway Island, andWake Island in the mid-Pacific as well asEniwetok andBikini Atoll in theMarshall Islands.[6] The Air Force also took control of the six range instrumented shipsHuntsville,Longview,Range Tracker,Richfield,Sunnyvale, andWatertown.[6] The Navy retained a missile test facility atPoint Mugu.[6] In 1979, the name was shortened to simply the Western Test Range.[6]
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