The facilities proposed for upgrade make up a system called PAVE PAWS, which stands for Precision Acquisition of Vehicle Entry Phased Array Warning System. In addition to the installation at Beale AFB, there is a facility in Massachusetts and one under construction in Alaska. PAVE PAWS was originally built as an early warning system for submarine-launched nuclear missiles. During operation, the Yuba County facility currently operates at an unusually massive 1-6 billion watts. If the U.S. Army is allowed to throw the switch on the upgraded installation they plan to build, this new facility would use more power than all the homes in Mendocino County. Though usually aimed at the sky, the center of the radar beam could come as low as three degrees from the ground, according to the plan.
Radar transmits RF signals into space. A radar beam consists of a series of electromagnetic pulses. Are RF fields really safe? The Swiss government closed the Schwarzenburg Transmitter after an official study found that residents within 1.5 kilometers experienced insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, limb and joint pain, weakness, coughing and sputum, and abnormal blood pressure. A study of 16,992 cell phone users by seven Swedish scientists linked RF in cell phones to dizziness, discomfort, inability to concentrate, memory loss, fatigue, headache, warmth behind the ear, and burning/ tingling/tightness in the face. A Romanian research team exposed human blood samples to RF at lower levels than emitted from cell phones for 10-60 hours. The red blood cells were damaged and leaked hemoglobin. Russian researchers found that exposure to RF from personal computers caused fatal deformities in the offspring of rats, mice, fish, and frogs.
RF technology has recently been fashioned into a weapon by the Pentagon. This electromagnet system, which mounts on a vehicle, shoots a beam similar to a microwave but at a higher frequency. The beam causes a "burning sensation equal to 120 degrees," stated Colonel George P. Fenton of the Defense Department's Joint Nonlethal Weapons Program, at a news conference in Quantico, Virginia on March 1, 2001.
PAVE PAWS is unsafe technology. It also upsets the global nuclear power balance by giving the U.S. a new high-technology edge over other nations. The government claims that missile defense will defend us from "rogue states," but this new technology will not be shared with other nuclear superpowers. Missile defense is an excuse for another arms race.
To oppose this nuclear scheme or to get more information on RF fields and studies, contact the MEC Anti-Nuclear Committee at: 106 West Standley, Ukiah, CA 95482 or at mecantinuke @hotmail.com.
To obtain a copy of the PAVE PAWS plan contained in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, finished December 8, 2000, contact: U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Attention: SMDC-EN-V (Ms. Julia Hudson), P.O. Box 1500, Huntsville, Alabama 35807-3801, or go to: www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/ bmdolink/html/nmd.html.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2001
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited