North Oscura Peak
mountain in New Mexico, United States
North Oscura Peak, is a summit in the Oscura Mountains in Socorro County, New Mexico is the location of an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) site in the northern portion of the White Sands Missile Range. It rises to an elevation of 7,976 feet (2,431 meters).
History
North Oscura Peak was a former Army missile tracking site. Designed to withstand rocket strikes, the walls at the site are 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, with 1,200 tons of concrete embedded six feet in bedrock. In 1972 a large concrete pad was built with associated power to operate the LAD (Laser Acquisition and Direction) system. It was named the Laser Airborne Simulation and Test (LAST) Site. This was a test program by the Air Force Weapons Laboratory Laser Division at Kirtland AFB. It was during the Vietnam War, and was to examine the potential of detecting optically directed antiaircraft systems using airborne laser scanning. The program was terminated with the conclusion of the Vietnam War. The Laser Division became the Directed Energy Directorate, which refurbished the site in June 1997, spending approximately $700,000 to repair the buildings, bring in the telescope, build a clean room, and install lasers, advanced optics, computers and test instrumentation. The budget also included improvements to the receiver station at Salinas Peak, where three portable shelters, an electronics room and an optics room were installed.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “North Oscura Peak” is mountain in New Mexico, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through North, Oscura and Peak, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “mountain in New Mexico, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7056237. Authority coordinates are 33.752, -106.372. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 1997.
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This entry incorporates text from “North Oscura Peak” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.