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Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| Basing: | Sea |
| In Service: | Exp. 2005 |
Details
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) consists of an advanced radar system mounted on a floating platform. Once operational, it will be able to track, discriminate, and assess long-range ballistic missiles as part of the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. It will be located just off the coast of Alaska and will be linked to 10 ground-based interceptor missiles deployed at Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
SBX, in many ways, is the offspring of the Ground Based Radar-Prototype (GBR-P), which has served as the fire control radar for flight and intercept tests at the Reagan Test Site since 1999. On August 1, 2002, MDA awarded a $31 million contract to Boeing to oversee development of its new sea-based radar system. At present, Boeing is building the floating platform, Raytheon is developing the X-band radar, and the Harris Corporation is providing systems engineering, integration services, and satellite communications equipment. The SBX team has applied many of the lessons learned from the GBR-P program, resulting in significant risk reduction and cost efficiency. The entire project will cost approximately $900 million.
MDA had initially planned to build a ground-based X-band radar, but decided to go with the greater range and mobility of a sea-based system. SBX’s floating platform, a modified oil-drilling vessel, is being designed for exceptional stability in high winds and storms. Measuring 240 feet wide and 390 feet long, the vessel will include a power plant, bridge and control rooms, living quarters, storage areas, and enough floor space and infrastructure to support the X-band radar. The platform’s mobility will allow MDA to relocate SBX to accommodate future “layers” of the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
The X-band radar itself, which will sit on top of the floating platform, will be the largest, most sophisticated phased array, electro-mechanically steered X-band radar in the world. It will consist of thousands of antennae driven by transmit/receive (T/R) modules. T/R modules are multi-functional circuits that can transmit, receive, and amplify signals. In the X-band radar, they will provide the full fire control sensor functions for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, including search, acquisition, tracking, discrimination, and kill assessment. The radar will be capable of distinguishing between objects as close as 15 centimeters.
After the radar has been mounted on the vessel, the entire structure will measure over 280 feet from the keel to the top of the radar’s dome, displacing 50,000 tons of water. To put this in perspective, SBX will be roughly the size of two football fields. A commercial C-band satellite will establish communications between the platform and shore facilities. It will take between 50 and 55 people on the platform and an addition 30 to 40 on shore to maintain the system.
Once operational, SBX will use its finely focused beam to track an incoming ballistic missile through space during the 20 or so minutes that it is outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The radar will transmit detailed tracking information to GMD’s command unit, which will calculate a fire mission and launch its Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) missile. As the GBI streaks towards the threat, SBX will distinguish between warheads and decoys, ensuring the interceptor’s accuracy. The radar will continue to relay updated targeting information after GBI launches its Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), which will proceed on a collision-course trajectory toward the target. SBX will determine whether or not the EKV destroyed the warhead, and prepare to support a second launch if necessary.
The one drawback of SBX is that X-band radars, like all other radars, cannot see over the curvature of the earth, known as the “radar horizon.” SBX’s ability to detect incoming missiles (and discriminate between warheads and decoys) depends completely on where the radar is located in relation to the incoming missile. Thus, the closer to rouge nations and terrorist-sponsoring states that SBX is positioned, the better the odds that GMD will be able to complete a successful interception.
On August 16, 2003, MDA announced its decision to deploy the SBX platform just off the coast of Adak, Alaska. Located on the western end of the Aleutian Islands, Adak is ideal for SBX because it will allow the system extra time to collect data on incoming threats from Asia. MDA considered sites in Washington and California as well, but concluded that locations on the continental U.S. would not give GMD enough time to intercept its targets. Adak served as a base of operations during World War II, housing 6,000 naval personnel and their families. Its existing Army infrastructure includes a 7,900-foot runway, a deep-water port that is ice-free year-round, two piers, a 22 million-gallon fuel storage tank, and barracks.
The X-band radar is currently being constructed in Brownsville, Texas. Once completed, it will be installed on the oil-drilling platform, which is being built in Norway. Sea trials will take place in the Gulf of Mexico before SBX moves to its primary base in Adak, Alaska. MDA plans for the SBX platform and radar to be fully integrated and deployed by December 2005.
Sources
Arms Control Association.
Dunford, Bruce. “Pentagon Releases EIS On Missile Defense Radar Platform Off Oahu.” Associated Press, 15 July 2003.
GlobalSecurity.org.
Harris Corporation.
Missile Defense Agency.
Pemberton, Mary. “Adak Chosen For Missile Defense System Radar.” Associated Press, 15 August 2003.
Raytheon Company.
Selinger, Marc. “Platform For MDA’s Sea-Based X-band Radar Nears Delivery.” Aerospace Daily, 11 April 2003.
“Harris Awarded $7.7 Million Contract By Sea-based X-band Radar.” Space Daily, 19 September 2003.
Tuinstra, Rachel. “Department of Defense Picks Alaska for Sea-Based Test X-band Radar.” The Seattle Times, 16 August 2003.
Hackett on the X-Band Radar
Writing for the November 15 edition of The Washington Times, James Hackett discusses the progress made on the Sea-Based X-band radar (SBX). The SBX is designed "to detect and track ballistic missiles more effectively and provide targeting information to both ground- and sea-based interceptors. The power and precision of its beam improves the ability of the interceptor to distinguish warheads from decoys and other penetration aids." Indeed, the radar is so powerful it can "track an object the size of a baseball over the East Coast." The SBX's usual position is Adak in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, however the radar is mobile, and has moved by its own power around the Pacific for various missile tests.
Hackett also notes that, in 1998, a prototype of the X-band radar "was installed on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific ... as the primary fire control radar for the Pacific missile test range." It is a similar X-band radar that the U.S. is planning to locate in the Czech Republic as part of a new missile defense in Europe.
Hackett concludes by noting: "As missile and nuclear technology spread to more countries, possibly even to terrorist groups, it is in Russia's own security interest to join Europe and America in creating a common defense. And it is Congress' responsibility to approve the funds needed to base the X-band radar and interceptors in Europe."
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» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
Missile Defense Team Completes Flight Test and Intercepts Target Missile
On September 28 the Missile Defense Agency reported the successful test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, including an intercept of a target missile. The Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska launched a long range ballistic missile target, traveling southward to resemble the trajectory of a North Korean missile. The upgraded Early Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base in California located and tracked the target. Seventeen minutes later, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California launched an interceptor missile, which released its exoatmospheric kill vehicle, the component that collides directly with the target warhead in space, a "hit to kill" kinetic technology. The interceptor successfully destroyed the target warhead, marking the seventh successful intercept of the GMD system, and the second time an operationally configured interceptor has been used in the past thirteen months. The test was described as highly complex, and integrating a number of components, including the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) located in the northern Pacific and an Aegis ballistic missile defense ship using its onboard SPY-1 radar to track the target warhead.
» More stories on: Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD), Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX), Aegis Ship-Based BMD
SBX Enroute to Pacific, Passing Straits of Magellan
The Sea-based X-Band Radar system located on a massive oil platform, has begun its journey from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern Pacific Ocean via the Straits of Magellan in South America.
The large floating radar is too large too travel through the Panama canal, and instead of traveling under its own power it will be shipped aboard a heavy transport vessel called Blue Marlin. The current destination for the SBX is Adak, Alaska, a small island located in the Aleutian Island chain.
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
Sea-Based X-Band Radar Transmits First Radar Beam
The Missile Defense Agency today announced that the Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) Radar successfully transmitted a radar beam for the first time on September 11, 2005. The SBX radar is on its way to the Pacific Ocean, where it will be used for both missile defense tests and the tracking and detection of hostile enemy missiles.
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
First Phase of SBX Trials Over
The Missile Defense Agency reports that the first phase of trials for the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) has been completed. The SBX-1 completed 12 days of at-sea testing and returned to Kiewit Offshore Services in Corpus Christi, Texas, on July 21, 2005. The press release notes that “Hurricane Emily’s arrival in the Gulf allowed the crew and shore support team to exercise weather avoidance plans and extended the mission by two days.” When tests are completed, the SBX will be moved to the Northern Pacific, and will be based out of Adak, Alaska.
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
Sea Based X-Band Radar Dedicated; Enroute to Alaska
The massive X-band radar mounted onto one of the world’s largest oil-rigs has now been dedicated, with a formal announcement today by Air Force Lt. General Trey Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency Director, at a ceremony today at Kiewit Offshore Services at Corpus Christi, Texas.
An excerpt from the MDA press release:
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar is a unique combination of an advanced X-Band radar mounted aboard an ocean-going, semi-submersible platform that provides the Ballistic Missile Defense System with a missile tracking and discrimination capability that can be positioned to cover any part of the globe to support both missile defense operations and testing. The platform is twin-hulled, self-propelled and very stable in rough seas and turbulent sea conditions. Its ocean-spanning mobility allows the radar to be repositioned as needed to support the various test scenarios envisioned for the Ballistic Missile Defense System or to provide radar coverage of possible threat missile launches from anywhere in the world.
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar is 240 feet wide and 390 feet long. It towers more than 280 feet from its keel to the top of the radome and displaces nearly 50,000 tons. Larger than a football field, the main deck houses living quarters, workspaces, storage, power generation, a bridge and control rooms while providing the floor space and infrastructure necessary to support the radar antenna array, command, control and communications suites and an in-flight interceptor communication system data terminal.
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar recently returned from preliminary sea trials, and preparations are underway for further tests and the transit of the vessel later this year to its homeport of Adak, Alaska.
» More stories on: Sea-Based Systems
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
SBX Said Near Completion
The new Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) is nearing completion, reports the Associated Press. The SBX, currently being constructed in Corpus Christi, Texas, is an advanced radar system mounted on a semi-submersible oil-drilling rig. According to U.S. Army Col. Michael Smith, project manager of SBX, workers will test the rig’s mobility in the Gulf of Mexico before the SBX travels this summer around South America to its new home in Adak, Alaska. The rig is almost 240 feet wide and therefore cannot pass through the Panama Canal.
» More stories on: Detection and Tracking
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
SBX Modifications Scheduled for 2006
The Missile Defense Agency plans to expand the Sea-Based X-Band Radar’s ability to communicate with missile defense systems other than the ground-based midcourse defense system, reports NTI. The expansion is scheduled for early in FY 2006.
The SBX, currently being constructed in Corpus Christi, Texas, is an advanced radar system mounted on a semi-submersible oil-drilling rig. It will eventually be deployed from Adak, Alaska, and will be used to aid interceptors in homing in on enemy missiles over the Pacific.
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
Dome Installed on SBX Radar
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar has now completed its major assembly with the addition of the radar’s protective “radome.” The radome weighs 18,000 pounds, stands over 103 feet high, and is 120 feet in diameter. Made entirely of a high-tech synthetic fabric, the radome is supported by air pressure alone and can withstand winds more than 130 miles per hour. The entire SBX sits on a large, converted oil rig.
The SBX, currently being constructed in Corpus Christi, Texas, will eventually be deployed from Alaska, and will serve as an integrated radar for the ground based midcourse defense system. Although the SBX cannot see past the horizon, it would be used for looking up, to aid interceptors in homing in on missiles in space above the Pacific—that is, those headed from locations such as North Korea toward the United States.
» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
SBX Radar Base Chosen
The Missile Defense Agency has announced Adak, Alaska, as the basing location for the Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar, a floating platform which will be integrated with the Ground Based Missile Defenses at the Fort Greeley site. The SBX vessel is a modified oil drilling platform measuring 390 feet long and 250 feet high, with a displacement of 50,000 tons.
During the last months some Alaskan towns have been actively campaigning for, and others against, receipt of the base.
The MDA completed an extensive study on the environmental impact of this and other components related to the GBD system.
» MDA’s Environmental Impact Documents
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» Missile system details for: Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)
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