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Pentagon to reopen base to support missile defense radar
Washington, Aug 16: The Pentagon has decided to use a mothballed naval base on an island in the western Aleutians to support a powerful 900-million dollar sea-based targeting radar for its missile defense system, officials said.
Washington, Aug 16: The Pentagon has decided to use a mothballed naval base on an island in the western Aleutians to support a powerful 900-million dollar sea-based targeting radar for its missile defense system, officials said.
The base at Adak, Alaska was deemed to be the most
suitable of six sites considered because it was closest to the
anticipated operating area of the New Sea-based X-band radar
in the eastern Pacific, Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the
missile defense agency said yesterday.
"Adak is a naval base that was closed in 1996," he said. "So all the infrastructure is there and nobody is using it."
The radar, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2005, is designed to track the trajectory of incoming long-range missiles.
The tracking data is then relayed to ground-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg air force base in California.
The Pentagon originally planned to build an X-band radar on land at Shemya island on the westernmost end of the Aleutian chain.
But after withdrawing from the 1972 ABM treaty, which barred sea-based missile defenses, the Bush administration opted for a mobile, sea-based radar whose position could be moved depending on the threat.
"When it's out at sea, it gives the command and control system for missile defense a longer period of time to assess the missiles coming toward US," said Lehner.
A self-propelled, semi-submersible oil rig is being modified at shipyards in Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas, to carry the 50,000-ton radar, which is about 390 feet long and 250 feet high.
Bureau Report
"Adak is a naval base that was closed in 1996," he said. "So all the infrastructure is there and nobody is using it."
The radar, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2005, is designed to track the trajectory of incoming long-range missiles.
The tracking data is then relayed to ground-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg air force base in California.
The Pentagon originally planned to build an X-band radar on land at Shemya island on the westernmost end of the Aleutian chain.
But after withdrawing from the 1972 ABM treaty, which barred sea-based missile defenses, the Bush administration opted for a mobile, sea-based radar whose position could be moved depending on the threat.
"When it's out at sea, it gives the command and control system for missile defense a longer period of time to assess the missiles coming toward US," said Lehner.
A self-propelled, semi-submersible oil rig is being modified at shipyards in Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas, to carry the 50,000-ton radar, which is about 390 feet long and 250 feet high.
Bureau Report