--- title: "Millionaire Refurbishing Cold War Radar Unit to Hunt UFOs" description: "Millionaires are just like the rest of us — when they need help repairing their Cold War-era radar units to detect UFOs, they turn to Reddit. " date: "2022-07-07" modified: "2022-07-07" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/millionaire-cold-war-radar-ufo" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "microwave signals" - "radar" - "robotics" - "ufos" - "william sachiti" --- # Millionaire Refurbishing Cold War Radar Unit to Hunt UFOs ![Millionaires are just like the rest of us — when they need help repairing their Cold War-era radar units to detect UFOs, they turn to Reddit. ]() *\Image: RAF/Futurism\* Millionaires are just like the rest of us — when they need help repairing their out-of-commission, Cold War-era radar units to detect UFOs, they turn to the good folks over at Reddit. As [spotted by *Vice*](), an anonymous Reddit post featuring a gigantic British AMES Type 84 radar unit led users on a quest to unmask the mysterious person who'd bought it — and their equally-out-there reason for doing so. "Help!" the user wrote on their[ anonymous Reddit post](), featuring a photo of the Cold War behemoth. "I want to bring this back to life." Later, when someone asked the original poster what they wanted to do with the giant hunk of junk, [the user replied](), "because I convinced myself it may be good fun to use to attempt to find UFOs?" Redditors pretty quickly figured out who was behind the post, since there are only five Type 84 radar units like it in Britain: none other than [entrepreneur and roboticist William Sachiti](). Sachiti, who has already made a name for himself in the UK for having founded autonomous delivery startup Kar-go, later confirmed to *Vice* that he was indeed behind the post. Sachiti told the publication that he was only kind of joking when he said he wanted to use the machine — which was previously used by the British Air Force to detect enemy crafts and weapons — to hunt for aliens. "It’s not for me to decide what the best use in the modern world is for it," he said. "So long as it doesn’t harm and it’s not intrusive… I've got the tech… let’s give it a life." The main reason Sachiti is refurbishing the Type 84, however, is much more mundane. He told *Vice* that when he [purchased a decommissioned Royal Air Force base]() for his company Kar-go earlier this year, the property came with the abandoned radar unit. Because the Type 84 is considered a historic monument by the British government, it couldn't be demolished, so it sat unused for decades — until Sachiti decided to do something with it. "Because there was nobody here for a while," Sachiti told *Vice*, "it was slowly beginning to degrade. And to me, every time I've looked at it, I just thought, 'something's got to be done.'" So he took to Reddit to try to crowdsource a fix for the decaying behemoth, and the rest, as they say, is history. Because it's only been a week since his initial post, the Type 84 isn't back up and running **j**ust yet. It will likely need a lot of tinkering to make sure that it doesn't wipe out local television waves, as Sachiti explained to *Vice*, thanks to the staggering amount of ionized radiation it produces while operating. But given the level of expertise Sachiti's post has already attracted, it's probably only a matter of time until it starts scanning the skies for visitors from other worlds. **READ MORE:** [A Tech Millionaire Bought a Giant Cold War Radar to ‘Find UFOs’]() \[*Vice*\] **More on UFOs:** *[Astronaut Speculates That UFOs Are Time Travelers From the Future]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()