RADCAT Case Directory
  Category 9, RADAR  
 
  Preliminary Rating: 3

                                   
     

RADCAT is a revitalized special project now being conducted jointly by NICAP & Project 1947 with the help and cooperation of the original compiler of RADCAT, Martin Shough, to create a comprehensive listing of radar cases with detailed documentation from all previous catalogues, including UFOCAT and original RADCAT.

UFO Auto-Tracked, Sends Phony IFF
May 15, 1964
White Sands, New Mexico

Fran Ridge:
May 15, 1964; White Sands, NM
11:30 p.m. local. Original lead read: (May 22) "Auto radar tracks UFO (on tape ???), UFO sends phony IFF." A google search turned up this listing on our NCP UFO Intelligence Summary. I was unable to find any source or corroboration. The Blue Book site was checked to see if there was something observed at all at White Sands on that date, but no reference at all.

Brad Sparks:
If I recall correctly, this was an APRO case reported in the APRO Bulletin in May or July 1964, where more details can be found.  The UFO(s) were alternately transmitting/transponding in IFF Mode I and Mode III which was unusual if not unheard-of, hence "phony IFF."  The impression I got was that the radar site transmitted an interrogation signal on IFF Mode I but got a transponder response on Mode III, and/or vice versa, which of course would be impossible for conventional aircraft avionics.  It was apparently MILITARY IFF not civilian FAA transponder (this may be where the Lorenzens were misled), hence it was encrypyted.  This makes it all the more difficult to explain, even though a very thin case in terms of details and no documentation.  It happened in broad daylight near 12 Noon in good weather so the radar operator's visual of "brown football-shaped objects" is also difficult to explain as helicopters since it was not under poor observing conditions, to say nothing of the fact that White Sands radar stations would know about test flights and other military aircraft over the missile range.  What we need is angular size and visual duration data, and other details. 

Jan Aldrich:
We did interview the communications chief at stallion site who was there in this time frame.  He said that UFOs were routinely encountered on the White Sands Range so much so that they were ignored after several calls to interceptors to chase them away.  He also said some tests were delayed or cancelled due to unknown objects or radar returns on the range....he didn't have any detail cases in mind just the general information that things that weren't suppose to be there were detected.  Some felt it was Soviet spies, but no interceptions were succcessful.

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