Alaska’s HAARP Site Now Being Used To Test New Air Force Over-The-Horizon Radar Tech

By Joseph Trevithick

Published Oct 20, 2026 2:55 PM EDT

The U.S. military has successfully demonstrated a new lower-cost receiver that could form part of a future over-the-horizon (OTH) radar . The testing also raises the question of whether the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) research site in Alaska, which the U.S. Air Force transferred away more than a decade ago, could be repurposed for operational use in this role. A new radar of this kind would help the United States plug critical gaps in surveillance coverage over the ever-more strategic Arctic region. Canada is notably already pursuing a multi-billion-dollar OTH radar project in cooperation with Australia for this exact purpose.

The U.S. military put out a press release yesterday regarding the testing of the newly developed receiver array, which occurred between September 7 and September 11. This was the culmination of a series of “Arctic air domain awareness” experiments conducted cooperatively by U.S. and Canadian authorities over the past three years.

An aerial view of the HAARP site in Alaska, taken on September 7, 2026. USAF

The final round of experimentation last month “examined whether an existing high-frequency transmitter [HAARP], paired with a newly developed, low-cost [16-element high-frequency] receiver array, could detect aircraft beyond the coverage of current long-range radar sites,” according to the release. “The effort focused on improving awareness across a region where vast distances, harsh weather and limited infrastructure present challenges for air surveillance.”

“Researchers used the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program [HAARP] facility and a receiver array in Cold Bay developed by MITRE to collect data on participating aircraft over the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea,” the release added. “MITRE also supported the effort throughout the three-year experiment series and designed and executed the field experiment in partnership with government, scientific, and operational participants.”

A view of the MITRE-developed array in Cold Bay, Alaska, which was part of the testing in September. USAF

The remote HAARP site was built in the 1990s as part of a joint U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy effort. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was also involved. The central component of the 33-acre facility is an array of 180 crossed-dipole antennas, which can transmit up to 3.6 megawatts of radio frequency energy, according to the Air Force .

The primary purpose of HAARP was to provide U.S. government and independent researchers with a state-of-the-art facility to explore ionospheric phenomena . On the U.S. military side, work was focused on improving long-range surveillance and communications capabilities, including ways to communicate with submerged submarines . Over the years, HAARP has also been the subject of several entirely unsubstantiated conspiracy theories .

In 2014, the U.S. Air Force announced that it would shutter the HAARP site and dismantle it. However, the following year, the decision was instead made to transfer it to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which has continued to operate it as a civilian research facility.

“During an experimental air domain awareness initiative, HAARP served as a high-power illuminator, transmitting signals toward the ionosphere to support the detection of airborne targets over Alaska’s maritime approaches,” according to the captions of several pictures that accompanied the release yesterday . “The experiment evaluated bistatic over-the-horizon detection methods to explore potential improvements in long-range surveillance and air domain awareness across Alaska’s maritime approaches.”

Another view of crossed-dipole antennas at the HAARP site. USAF

The most common types of OTH radars are so-called ‘skywave’ or ‘backscatter’ designs. They usually consist of two large and geographically separated arrays of antennas. The ‘illuminator’ array pumps out signals that are bounced off the ionosphere, the ionized layer of Earth’s upper atmosphere, at a specific angle so that they return to the ‘receiver’ array. Objects of interest (in the air and/or on the surface depending on the specific configuration) are detected in the process. As TWZ has previously written :

“Commonly, radars are limited by line of sight due to the curvature of the Earth in relation to the altitude they are operating at. OTHRs overcome this critical limitation, but with some major drawbacks.”

“While they offer much lower fidelity than many of their line-of-sight counterparts in most cases, they make up for it in huge range, hundreds of miles to thousands of miles (1,500 miles is common, for instance, for powerful military sky wave/backscatter OTHR systems) and a large coverage area. The sky wave type of OTHRs achieve this by bouncing their radio waves off the ionosphere to a coverage area where they hit targets and return the same way to the receiving station. The angle at which the radio waves hit the ionosphere dictates the range, and that angle is limited to a specific envelope or the waves won’t properly bounce back toward Earth. As such, placing the radar in the right place in relation to the targeted surveillance area or areas, to begin with, is key.”

In the testing last month, Air Force E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) radar planes, HC-130J Combat King II rescue aircraft, and KC-135 aerial refueling tankers “served as cooperative targets, providing known positions against which researchers could compare the experimental data,” according to the official release. “The team successfully completed testing, meeting or exceeding its test execution objectives. Initial results show the system was successfully able to achieve full skywave (beyond line of sight) detections of aircraft and correlation to truth flights. Thorough data analysis is ongoing.”

An Alaska-based E-3 Sentry receives fuel from a KC-135 tanker during an exercise in 2022. USAF

An HC-130J Combat King II seen landing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska in August. USAF/Alejandro Pena

The release also says that the tests “explored how existing infrastructure and emerging technology could complement current surveillance capabilities.” This raises the possibility that the HAARP site, specifically, might be utilized as part of a new OTH radar. Whether or not this is actually under consideration is still unclear, and TWZ has reached out for more information.

Regardless, OTH radars have been experiencing something of a renaissance in recent years in the United States and elsewhere globally. Separate reports just in the past day or so have highlighted what appears to be significant progress on at least one part of a long-planned OTH radar in Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave .

Outside of Alaska, the U.S. military has been working to establish a Tactical Mobile Over-the-Horizon Radar (TACMOR) site in the South Pacific archipelago nation of Palau. The originally stated goal had been to finish work on this facility in 2026, but the project has faced legal challenges .

As already mentioned, OTH radars have also been part of U.S. plans to improve surveillance coverage in the Arctic. Like the recent testing in Alaska, there has been significant cooperation with Canada in this regard over the years, including through the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

Today, NORAD relies heavily on a network of ground-based radars called the North Warning System (NWS) to provide aerial surveillance coverage in the High North. The radars that make up the NWS are also all pointed northward, and none of them provide the kind of wide-area long-range coverage that an OTH design would offer.

A map showing NWS radar sites in Canada and their coverage arcs. Nasittuq Corporation

The NWS reflects a long-standing focus on monitoring for aerial threats heading across the North Pole toward North America, especially possible nuclear strikes from Russia (and the Soviet Union before it). However, new avenues for geostrategic competition in the Arctic with Russia, as well as China, over natural resources, from oil and natural gas to fish and other sealife , as well as trade routes have emerged in recent years amid receding ice and other impacts of global climate change. This, in turn, has only prompted growing demand for surveillance coverage.

“We need a layered sensing grid, from [the] seafloor to the space layer. And we have no choice. It has to be layered and deep, a defense in depth, from a sensing point of view,” Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Maj. Gen. Chris McKenna, head of 1 Canadian Air Division and the Canadian NORAD Region, also said during a panel discussion at the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) annual Warfare Symposium in 2025, at which TWZ was in attendance. “And I will say I suffer from an insufficiency of ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] in the Arctic on a daily basis. And I am fighting for information.”

McKenna was responding at the time to a direct question about gaps in so-called “domain awareness” in and around the Arctic and how to address them.

“I think there’s an importance here of not just air domain, but also space domain, and having a sufficiency of ISR in the Arctic to actually build you the [domain awareness] picture,” he added. “I haven’t really touched on over-the-horizon radar, but I certainly can get into it. I think that’s a really important capability given the austerity of the Arctic and the need for it to cue other things.”

For its part, Canada is now building its own new Arctic Over The Horizon Radar (A-OTHR), at an estimated cost of more than $4 billion. In an announcement last year that caught many off guard, the Canadian government announced that it would be leveraging technology originally developed for Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) to support this development. It is also important to note here that relations between Canadian authorities and the Trump administration have been and continue to be heavily strained over a variety of issues, which has prompted broad concerns about future defense and security cooperation.

An element of Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN). Australian Department of Defense

Back in the United States, OTH radar plans are also now tied in with the broader Golden Dome air and missile defense initiative . Golden Dome is seeking to establish new layers of defense around the U.S. homeland against a wide array of threat types, and puts major emphasis on new space-based sensor and interceptor capabilities . Expanded defensive architectures within the Earth’s atmosphere are also part of this plan.

“Adversaries are developing and building advanced nuclear and conventional delivery capabilities,” U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Jarrard, Vice Commander of the U.S. element of NORAD and Deputy Commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), warned at the annual Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium in August. This includes “cruise, hypersonic, and ballistic missiles, as well as fractional orbital bombardment systems, or FOBS , to threaten not only Alaska and Hawaii, but the entire continent of the United States.”

Chinese hypersonic and other developments, in particular, enable new modes of attack that “can approach North America from the south, rather than the traditional northerly vector for which our legacy early warning radars were designed,” Jarrard continued. “The Chinese have also been building a conventionally-armed ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] equipped with hypersonic glide vehicles that can range [sic] targets throughout Alaska, providing Chinese leaders strike options against our homeland below the nuclear threshold.”

“Russia’s advanced missiles, like the nuclear-armed Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle , are designed to circumvent the ground-based radars used by NORAD and NORTHCOM to detect and characterize an inbound threat, and challenge the ability to provide threat warning and attack assessment,” he added.

New OTH radars positioned in Alaska and elsewhere in the Pacific will not be able to address all of these threat developments alone. At the same time, the recent testing leveraging the HAARP site is another step toward meeting demands for sorely needed expanded long-range radar coverage in the Arctic.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

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作者：约瑟夫·特雷维西克

发布于美国东部时间2026年10月20日下午2:55

美国军方成功演示了一种新型低成本接收器，该接收器有望成为未来超视距（OTH）雷达的组成部分。此次测试也引发了一个问题：位于阿拉斯加的高频主动极光研究计划（HAARP）研究基地（美国空军十多年前将其移交）是否可以重新用于执行此类任务。这种新型雷达将有助于美国填补日益重要的北极地区监视覆盖的关键空白。值得注意的是，加拿大正与澳大利亚合作推进一项耗资数十亿美元的超视距雷达项目，其目的正是如此。

美国军方昨天发布新闻稿，宣布对新开发的接收器阵列进行测试，测试时间为9月7日至9月11日。这是美国和加拿大当局过去三年合作开展的一系列“北极空域感知”实验的最终成果。

2026年9月7日拍摄的阿拉斯加HAARP基地鸟瞰图。美国空军

根据新闻稿，上个月的最后一轮试验“检验了现有的高频发射机（HAARP）与新开发的低成本（16单元高频）接收机阵列配合使用，能否探测到现有远程雷达站覆盖范围之外的飞机”。“这项工作的重点是提高该地区的空中监视能力，该地区地域辽阔、气候恶劣、基础设施有限，给空中监视带来了诸多挑战。”

新闻稿补充道：“研究人员利用阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯分校的高频主动极光研究计划（HAARP）设施和MITRE公司在科尔德湾开发的接收器阵列，收集了参与实验的飞机在阿拉斯加湾和白令海上空的数据。MITRE公司也在为期三年的实验系列中为这项工作提供了支持，并与政府、科研和运营部门的参与者合作，设计并执行了实地实验。”

这是位于阿拉斯加科尔德湾的MITRE公司开发的阵列，该阵列参与了9月份的测试。（美国空军）

这座位于偏远地区的HAARP基地建于上世纪90年代，是美国空军和海军联合项目的一部分。国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）也参与其中。据美国空军称，这座占地33英亩的设施的核心部件是由180个交叉偶极子天线组成的阵列，可以发射高达3.6兆瓦的射频能量。

HAARP 的主要目的是为美国政府和独立研究人员提供一个最先进的设施，用于探索电离层现象。在美国军方，其工作重点是提高远程监视和通信能力，包括与水下潜艇通信的方法。多年来，HAARP 也一直是许多毫无根据的阴谋论的主题。

2014年，美国空军宣布将关闭并拆除HAARP基地。然而，次年，美国空军决定将其移交给阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯分校，该校一直将其作为民用研究设施运营至今。

根据昨天发布的几张图片的说明文字，“在一次实验性的空中领域感知计划中，HAARP 充当了高功率照射器的角色，向电离层发射信号，以支持对阿拉斯加海上空域目标的探测。该实验评估了双基地超视距探测方法，以探索在阿拉斯加海上空域远程监视和空中领域感知方面的潜在改进。”

HAARP 站点交叉偶极天线的另一视角。美国空军

最常见的超视距雷达类型是所谓的“天波”或“后向散射”设计。它们通常由两个地理位置分散的大型天线阵列组成。“照射器”阵列发出信号，这些信号以特定角度从地球高层大气中的电离层（电离层）反射回来，最终到达“接收器”阵列。在此过程中，目标物体（空中和/或地面，取决于具体配置）会被探测到。正如TWZ之前所写：

“通常情况下，由于地球曲率及其与雷达工作高度的关系，雷达的探测范围会受到视线限制。OTHR（光学高程雷达）克服了这一关键限制，但同时也存在一些重大缺陷。”

“虽然在大多数情况下，它们的精度远低于许多视距雷达，但它们却拥有巨大的探测距离，可达数百英里甚至数千英里（例如，强大的军用天波/后向散射式OTHR系统通常可达1500英里），覆盖范围也十分广阔。天波式OTHR的工作原理是利用电离层反射无线电波，使其到达目标区域，然后以同样的方式返回接收站。无线电波入射到电离层的角度决定了探测距离，而这个角度必须控制在特定的范围内，否则无线电波就无法正确反射回地球。因此，首先将雷达部署在相对于目标监视区域的正确位置至关重要。”

根据官方新闻稿，在上个月的测试中，空军E-3“哨兵”空中预警与控制系统（AWACS）雷达飞机、HC-130J“战斗之王II”救援飞机和KC-135空中加油机“作为合作目标，提供已知位置信息，以便研究人员将实验数据与之进行比对”。“团队成功完成了测试，达到或超过了测试执行目标。初步结果显示，该系统能够成功实现对飞机的全天波（超视距）探测，并与真实飞行数据进行比对。目前正在进行全面的数据分析。”

2022年，一架驻扎在阿拉斯加的E-3“哨兵”预警机在演习中从KC-135加油机接收燃料。美国空军

8月，一架HC-130J“战斗之王II”运输机降落在阿拉斯加埃尔门多夫-理查森联合基地。美国空军/亚历杭德罗·佩纳

新闻稿还指出，这些测试“探索了现有基础设施和新兴技术如何与当前的监视能力相辅相成”。这引发了一种可能性，即HAARP基地可能被用于构建新的超视距雷达。目前尚不清楚这是否真的在考虑之中，TWZ已联系相关方面以获取更多信息。

尽管如此，近年来，超视距雷达在美国和世界其他地区都经历了某种程度的复兴。就在过去一两天，有报道称，俄罗斯加里宁格勒飞地一项筹划已久的超视距雷达项目，至少有一部分似乎取得了重大进展。

除阿拉斯加外，美国军方一直在南太平洋群岛国家帕劳努力建立一个战术移动超视距雷达（TACMOR）站点。最初的目标是在2026年完成该设施的建设，但该项目面临着法律挑战。

如前所述，超视距雷达也是美国提升北极地区监视覆盖范围计划的一部分。与近期在阿拉斯加进行的测试类似，多年来，美国与加拿大在这方面开展了大量合作，包括通过美加北美防空司令部（NORAD）进行合作。

如今，北美防空司令部主要依靠名为北方预警系统（NWS）的地面雷达网络，为高北地区提供空中监视覆盖。组成北方预警系统的雷达全部指向北方，而且没有一部雷达能够提供像超视距雷达那样的大范围远程覆盖。

一张地图显示了加拿大境内的国家气象局雷达站及其覆盖范围。纳西图克公司

美国国家气象局长期以来一直致力于监测飞越北极、直扑北美地区的空中威胁，特别是来自俄罗斯（以及之前的苏联）的潜在核打击。然而，近年来，随着冰层消融和全球气候变化的其他影响，北极地区与俄罗斯以及中国在石油、天然气、鱼类和其他海洋生物等自然资源以及贸易路线方面的地缘战略竞争出现了新的态势。反过来，这也进一步刺激了对监测覆盖范围日益增长的需求。

“我们需要一个分层的传感网络，从海底到太空层。我们别无选择。从传感的角度来看，它必须是分层且纵深的，一种纵深防御，”加拿大皇家空军（RCAF）第一空军师师长兼加拿大北美防空司令部（NORAD）区域司令克里斯·麦肯纳少将在2025年空军与太空部队协会（AFA）年度作战研讨会的小组讨论会上说道。TWZ也出席了此次研讨会。“而且我必须说，我每天都在北极地区遭受情报、监视和侦察（ISR）不足的困扰。我正在为获取信息而战。”

当时，麦肯纳正在回答一个直接问题，即北极及其周边地区所谓的“领域意识​​”存在差距，以及如何解决这些问题。

他补充道：“我认为，这里不仅空中领域，太空领域也同样重要，在北极地区拥有充足的情报、监视和侦察能力，才能真正构建出态势感知图景。我还没有真正谈到超视距雷达，但我肯定可以深入探讨。考虑到北极地区的资源匮乏以及它需要为其他行动提供信息，我认为这是一项非常重要的能力。”

加拿大目前正在建设自己的新型北极超视距雷达（A-OTHR），预计耗资超过40亿美元。去年，加拿大政府出人意料地宣布，将利用最初为澳大利亚金达利作战雷达网（JORN）开发的技术来支持该项目的建设。值得注意的是，加拿大当局与特朗普政府之间的关系一直以来都因各种问题而高度紧张，这引发了人们对未来国防和安全合作的广泛担忧。

澳大利亚金达利作战雷达网（JORN）的一部分。澳大利亚国防部

回到美国，超视距雷达计划现在也与更广泛的“金穹顶”防空反导计划紧密相连。“金穹顶”计划旨在为美国本土构建新的防御体系，以应对各种类型的威胁，并重点发展新型天基传感器和拦截器能力。扩展地球大气层内的防御架构也是该计划的一部分。

“对手正在研发和建造先进的核武器和常规武器投送能力，”美国陆军中将约瑟夫·贾拉德（Joseph Jarrard）在8月份举行的年度太空与导弹防御研讨会上发出警告。贾拉德是美国北美防空司令部（NORAD）美军分队的副司令，也是美国北方司令部（NORTHCOM）的副司令。他指出，这些能力包括“巡航导弹、高超音速导弹和弹道导弹，以及部分轨道轰炸系统（FOBS），其威胁范围不仅包括阿拉斯加和夏威夷，还包括整个美国本土。”

贾拉德继续说道，中国高超音速武器和其他技术的发展，尤其使得新的攻击模式成为可能，“可以从南部而非我们现有预警雷达所设计的传统北方方向接近北美”。他还表示，“中国一直在研制一种配备高超音速滑翔飞行器的常规武装洲际弹道导弹，这种导弹可以打击阿拉斯加境内的目标，为中国领导人提供了在核门槛以下打击我们本土的选项。”

“俄罗斯的先进导弹，例如携带核弹头的先锋高超音速滑翔飞行器，旨在绕过北美防空司令部和北方司令部用于探测和识别来袭威胁的地面雷达，并对提供威胁预警和攻击评估的能力构成挑战，”他补充道。

部署在阿拉斯加和太平洋其他地区的新型超视距雷达无法单独应对所有这些威胁发展。与此同时，近期利用HAARP基地进行的测试是满足北极地区迫切需要的远程雷达覆盖范围的又一重要举措。

联系作者：joe@twz.com

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