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U.S. to Float Giant Missile-Defense Radar to Alaska
Reuters ^ | March 30, 2005 | Jim Wolf

Posted on 03/30/2005 4:39:18 PM PST by Righty_McRight

WASHINGTON (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 radar is designed to track and distinguish long-range ballistic missiles from decoys that could be used in an attack on the United States.

After being assembled and tested extensively in the Gulf of Mexico, the entire structure will set sail on a five- to seven-month trip around Cape Horn at the tip of Latin America and into the Pacific bound for Alaska's Aleutian islands.

"It will likely leave for its long journey some time between June and August," said Richard Lehner of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, which is developing a multilayered shield against warheads that could carry chemical, germ or nuclear weapons.

The rig, capable of making 7 knots under its own power, should putter in to its primary base at Adak Island, in the Aleutians, by the end of the year, Lehner said. Details of its route and its escorts are not being disclosed publicly for security reasons, he said.

The platform's on-board propulsion system makes it possible to operate it in oceans around the world, the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement last week. It said the Sea-Based X-Band Radar platform vessel had arrived in Corpus Christi on March 17 from a shipyard in Brownsville, Texas.

Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) is the prime contractor for the so-called Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, and Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN - news) manufacturers the high-powered X-Band radar, which can use 69,632 multi-sectional circuits to transmit, receive and amplify signals, according to Raytheon.

Once the radar is mounted on the platform, a modified oil drilling rig, the setup will tower 282 feet from its keel to the top of the radar dome and displace nearly 50,000 tons while under way and fully crewed.

The main deck measures about 230 feet by 390 feet, too wide to pass through the Panama Canal, Lehner said.

It will be linked to the system's nerve center in Colorado Springs and to a total of 18 ground-based interceptor missiles due to be deployed by the end of this year at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; US: Alaska; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: boeing; fortgreely; miltech; missiledefense; raytheon; vandenberg
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The platform for the Sea-Based X-band Radar, a key component of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense Program, departs Brownsville, Texas, for the next step in it's assembly on March 13, 2005. When the platform arrives in Corpus Christi, Texas, the Raytheon-built SBX radar will be lifted and installed on the ocean-going vessel. The United States is readying the 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 radar is designed to track and distinguish long-range ballistic missiles from decoys that could be used in an attack on the United States. Picture taken March 13, 2005. NO SALES REUTERS/Boeing/Handout
1 posted on 03/30/2005 4:39:18 PM PST by Righty_McRight
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To: Righty_McRight

Wonder if it will go through the Discovery Passage on it's way up North...The Discover Passage is the narrows between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland, quite a few vessels go through there on their way North to Alaska...


2 posted on 03/30/2005 4:42:23 PM PST by MD_Willington_1976
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To: Righty_McRight

That's it - tell the world - wanna bet the ChiComs will use this for target practice?


3 posted on 03/30/2005 4:42:56 PM PST by George from New England
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To: George from New England

Heh, have a little more faith in the navy.


4 posted on 03/30/2005 4:44:26 PM PST by Righty_McRight
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To: Righty_McRight

Well, apparently its not vital to the 'basic missile defense', but I hope it gets there saftely.


U.S. 'can shoot down N. Korea missiles now'
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1364391/posts

If nuclear missiles were suddenly fired at the United States from North Korea, the U.S. is ready to shoot them down.

That's the opinion of Major Gen. John Holly, head of the missile-shield program for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

"If directed, we could provide a limited defense against an attack out of Northeast Asia," Holly told Alaska lawmakers, according to the Associated Press.


5 posted on 03/30/2005 4:50:20 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/foundingoftheunitedstates.htm)
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To: Righty_McRight

No room on Shemya?


6 posted on 03/30/2005 4:51:37 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: Righty_McRight

Should be quite exciting in the "Roaring Forties".


7 posted on 03/30/2005 4:54:02 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Righty_McRight

" ... Adak, Alaska."

Wonderful place in the Aleutian Islands! It used to be a Naval Air Station -- I was stationed there '83 - '86. Great place to raise a family.


8 posted on 03/30/2005 5:00:26 PM PST by AngrySpud (Behold, I am The Anti-Crust ... Anti-Hillary)
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To: struwwelpeter

Sure... down at the old dump would be great. Nothing to hit there but the old russian foxes, and a raven or two. After 11 months of work on Shemya, I can speak as an authority on best places to hide it there!


9 posted on 03/30/2005 5:02:23 PM PST by Issaquahking
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To: Righty_McRight

I hope they have a backup, because no matter how seaworthy this platform is, and it sure looks pretty clumsy to me, they could easily lose it going around the Horn. The weather there can be unbelievably nasty.

That looks like a lot of area to expose to the wind.


10 posted on 03/30/2005 5:05:53 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Issaquahking

I was on Shemya, 1960-61. GE


11 posted on 03/30/2005 5:23:31 PM PST by Waco
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To: George from New England

Oh please, it's no freakin secret. Hell, you can't hide something that big even in Texas. Everybody on Padre Island Beach has seen it.

WW

Texas beachcomber.


12 posted on 03/30/2005 5:54:18 PM PST by WilliamWallace1999
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To: Cicero

You are seeing the platform in its port elevation. It floods the legs and settles until the deck is about 30 feet above the water. It has a huge ballast and a center of gravity well below the surface. Won't blow over in a hurricane. It's been tried.


13 posted on 03/30/2005 5:56:34 PM PST by WilliamWallace1999
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To: WilliamWallace1999

Was this thing designed from the get-go as a sea-going device, or are we doing this to avoid the political hassle of trucking it in pieces through Canada?


14 posted on 03/30/2005 6:01:53 PM PST by Nick Danger (You can stick a fork in the Mullahs -- they're done.)
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To: George from New England

http://bmdssc.jntf.osd.mil/MDA_Photo_Library/sbx.shtm

Here is a whole website about it.


15 posted on 03/30/2005 6:05:36 PM PST by WilliamWallace1999
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To: Righty_McRight

This sounds like something that ought to not be advertised(?)


16 posted on 03/30/2005 6:07:14 PM PST by The Duke
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To: George from New England
You can be rest assured that they have navy ships protecting this rig, it will be protected like a aircraft carrier is.
17 posted on 03/30/2005 6:17:10 PM PST by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM 53 : 1 The ( FOOL ) hath said in his heart , There is no GOD .)
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To: WilliamWallace1999

Hopefully you're right. I've seen 25 foot waves off the coast of Maine in a small sailboat. Cape Horn can be as bad as it gets.


18 posted on 03/30/2005 6:27:16 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Issaquahking
Remember the weather on Eareckson?

Mean Annual Temperature 39º F

Mean Annual Snow Fall 70"

Month

Mean Temp (º F)

Min Surface Winds Max

 

 

 

Jan

32

16KTS----------100KTS

 

 

 

Feb

31

17KTS-----------80KTS

 

 

 

Mar

32

16KTS-----------73KTS

 

 

 

Apr

35

16KTS-----------82KTS

 

 

 

May

39

14KTS-----------66KTS

 

 

 

Jun

42

12KTS-----------59KTS

 

 

 

Jul

47

11KTS-----------60KTS

 

 

 

Aug

49

12KTS-----------63KTS

 

 

 

Sep

48

12KTS-----------70KTS

 

 

 

Oct

42

15KTS-----------79KTS

 

 

 

Nov

36

18KTS-----------77KTS

 

 

 

Dec

33

18KTS-----------108KTS

 

 

 


19 posted on 03/30/2005 7:19:39 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: struwwelpeter; Waco
Yuppers, I most certainly remember a military site that should have NEVER been shut down. When Mogadishu(sp?) was a hot spot on the globe and the secret stuff started coming in fast and furious...the code gurus would let us know that it was "coffee time" and we'd clear out of the comm. areas.

Lot of war history there on WWII, what a place to have to fight on/from! On a good day you could see Attu, unfortunately never secured permission to get there.

In a year, there were three times that it was nice enough to actually go barefoot on the beach!

Waco, I am the second generation in our family to work on that island (neither plan on a return in this lifetime), and we both agreed that we should make it a base, and make Attu a prison!
20 posted on 03/30/2005 7:45:44 PM PST by Issaquahking
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