According to this short article from Reuters, the U. S. is building the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX). The SBX is part of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, and will be used to track, discriminate and assess incoming target missiles. The platform, which is about 240 feet wide and 390 feet long, will measure more than 280 feet from its keel to the top of the radar dome. After extensive tests in the Gulf of New Mexico, this 2,000 tons radar will start its 7-month trip to Alaska after a detour around Cape Horn. And this radar will be manned by approximately 65 crew members. Read more.
Here are the opening paragraphs from Reuters.
The United States is readying an ultra-sophisticated radar system to float slowly around the world to Alaska where it will play a key role in a multibillion-dollar project to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.
The 2,000-ton Sea-Based X-Band Radar is to be hoisted aboard a platform as large as two football fields this week or next, depending on wind and weather in Corpus Christi, Texas, where it has been under initial sea trials.
The information given by Reuters was mostly picked from a news release from the DoD's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), "Sea-Based X-Band Radar Platform Completes Initial At-Sea Testing" (PDF format, 1 page, 217 KB).
Here is a picture of the SBX platform when it arrived in Corpus Christi on March 17, 2005 (Credit: MDA, DoD). The radar itself, which can be seen in the background, will soon be lifted on the platform. This image comes from the news release mentioned above.
Do you really want to know who I think started the war?... Who would ever have believed that human beings would be stupid enough to blow themselves off the face of the earth?... The trouble with you is you want a simple answer and there isn’t any. The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn’t possibly use without committing suicide. Everybody had an atomic bomb and counter-bombs and counter- counter-bombs. The devices outgrew us, we couldn’t control them. I know. I helped build them, God help me. Some poor bloke probably looked at a radar screen and thought he saw something, knew that if he hesitated one thousandth of a second his own country would be wiped off the map, so, so he pushed a button. And, and the world went crazy.
—John Paxton (1911–1985)
And here is an artist's rendition of the SBX platform when the radar is installed (Credit: MDA, DoD). This image comes from this SBX Fact Sheet (PDF format, 1 page, 67 KB).
Here are some more details coming from the MDA.
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar is being developed by the Missile Defense Agency to serve as a primary radar for the Ballistic Missile Defense System, and will be used to track ballistic missiles for both testing and actual defensive operations. The powerful X-band radar will also provide advanced discrimination of decoys and countermeasures that could be used by a hostile ballistic missile during an actual missile attack on the United States.
When completed, the radar and platform will be 282 feet high and displace nearly 50,000 tons when at operating draft. Its on-board propulsion system will allow it to operate throughout the world’s oceans if necessary. Near-term plans call for it to be home-ported at Adak Island in the Aleutian Island chain, but it will also have the capability to support both testing and operations throughout the entire Pacific Ocean missile defense testbed.
This SBX radar is manufactured by the Raytheon Company. For more images, you can visit two pages on its Missile Defense website, here (PDF format, 1 page, 221 KB) and there.
Sources: Jim Wolf, Reuters, March 30, 2005; and various websites
So I begin to understand why my mother’s radar is so sensitive to criticism. She still treads the well-worn ruts of her youth, when her impression of mother was of a woman hard to please, frequently negative, and rarely satisfied with anyone—least of all herself.
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
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