# Bomb Alarm System

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thumb|right|Bomb Alarm System sensor

The '''Bomb Alarm System''' (also known as the '''Bomb Alarm Display System''') was a US and UK network of optical [bhangmeter](/source/bhangmeter) sensors intended to confirm the detonation of an enemy nuclear weapon near cities or military installations within the US or at US operated early warning radar sites in the UK [or Greenland](/source/DEW_Line).<ref>{{cite web |
publisher=United States Air Force |
title=Atomic Bomb Alarm: Early Days of Early Warning |
date=2009-09-11 | url=https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196703/atomic-bomb-alarm-early-days-of-early-warning/}}</ref>

The BAS was designed by [Western Union](/source/Western_Union) in 1959<ref>{{cite journal
 |journal      = Western Union Technical Review
 |publisher    = Western Union Telegraph Company
 |url          = http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/technical/western-union-tech-review/17-1/p032.htm
 |title        = Bomb Alarm Display System 210-A
 |date         = January 1963
 |page         = 31
 |volume       = 17
 |number       = 1
 |last1        = Deibert
 |first1       = C. R.
 |last2        = Buckingham
 |first2       = W. D.
 |access-date  = 2013-04-07
 |archive-date = 2018-10-22
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20181022104619/http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/technical/western-union-tech-review/17-1/p032.htm
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref> and was in full operation by 1962.  The BAS was the responsibility of the [9th Space Division](/source/9th_Space_Division).  The BAS operated until 1967.

The BAS sensors were designed to report the occurrence of a nuclear flash via telephone or telegraph lines before the sensor was destroyed by the explosion.  They were designed to ignore spurious signals from lightning, sunlight, or electrical surges.

==See also==
* [Strategic Air Command](/source/Strategic_Air_Command)
* [Pinetree Line](/source/Pinetree_Line) contemporary early warning RADAR.
* [National Emergency Alarm Repeater](/source/National_Emergency_Alarm_Repeater) contemporary device.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Category:Telecommunications equipment of the Cold War
Category:Western Union

{{mil-stub}}

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