A team at Hill Air Force Base is credited with helping to fix a massive piece of radar equipment on the top of a mountain in Nevada. It's equipment that helps protect the airspace in Utah and other western states.
There's a chance we didn't hear about this when it happened in December, for concerns of national security. However, now that the surveillance radar in Nevada is operational again, we're finding out it was quite a challenge to get it repaired.worked with NORAD and the Federal Aviation Administration in restoring a long-range radar on top of Battle Mountain in northern Nevada after it was crushed by snow, twice.
"That created a hole in the airspace. We did not have primary radar coverage during that time," McFarland said.The first step of finding and rebuilding the antenna was no small feat. Then, FAA crews had to lug it up to the top of a mountain. The FAA was able to find one at a test facility in New Jersey. It took five months to refurbish it and get it back up the mountain piece by piece. That happened in June 2023.