I was a crew commander on the Cobra Dane intel radar while at Shemya. The listening post was elsewhere on the island.

The Cobra Dane had 3 missions when I was there in 1990:

1. Gathering radar intelligence (RADINT) on Soviet missile tests. RADINT consisted of tracking all of the pieces during a missile test, determining their characteristics (size, shape, motion, radar cross section), and sending that data for analysis. Working backwards from our (and other) data, the analysts could derive a great deal of information about Soviet missiles.

2. Providing missile warning to the US. Given our location, we would've been perhaps the first radar to know if the US was under attack.

3. Space surveillance. This included new launches (fun) as well as routine surveillance. One of the neatest things I remember was when the Soviets did a destructive deorbit of a "high interest" satellite within our field of view. For a few seconds, the screen was filled with dozens of pieces of satellite debris.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Dane was put into limited operations. It's still operating in the intelligence mission. I understand it also provide some space surveillance and there are efforts to restore funding for more space surveillance collections. I know of no effort to resume the missile warning mission. There was talk about building a new X-band NMD radar on Shemya for the missile defense mission but I don't know if that's going to happen. I pity whomever would be assigned there. If God ever decides to give the Earth an enema, Shemya is where He'll stick the hose.

As for the Bears, I had the additional duty of Squadron Intel Officer for most of the year. One of the stardard monthly reports I'd receive was "Soviet Air Activity in Alaskan Airspace". More than once, I'd see where a Bear had flown "simulated strike training missions" against Shemya during the past month. We were never told and no effort was made to intercept the bombers. Gee, thanks. The first we would've known about it had we actually been under attack would've been a very loud noise. And no, we couldn't see aircraft on our radar. The Dane was programmed to ignore things moving below a few thousand MPH to prevent false readings.