Floatin’ Smokey: The USA’s SBX Radar
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As rogue state proliferation by North Korea et. al. made missile defense a growing priority for nations like the USA, Japan, Israel, et. al., the USA began to look at the linchpin of any defense: powerful radars that could both track ballistic missiles, and guide interceptors. The USA has its BMEWS tracking system, but that would not serve. America’s Safeguard ABM system, meanwhile, was dismantled long ago – though Russia still maintains its counterpart System A-135 network around Moscow. Something new would be needed.
Raytheon’s giant XBR radar is a distant relative of the X-band radars used by police to detect speeding drivers, but designed to detect and illuminate incoming missiles instead. It floats on a system resembling an oil drilling platform, and will usually provide long-range mid-course guidance for ballistic missile defense systems. It can also provide earlier guidance if positioned correctly. The Sea-Based X-Band radar (SBX) that uses it was originally planned as a land-based system, but a sea-based system became possible when the George W. Bush administration withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Basing the radar at sea offers numerous advantages. One is the obvious ability to move the radar as threats materialize, allowing much greater coverage with fewer radars. Another is the ability to protect allies, without having to invest in expensive systems whose regional capabilities and value to the USA could be put at risk by the decisions of a single foreign government.
In exchange for this freedom from political interference, of course, the designers must contend with nature’s. This is DID’s FOCUS article for the SBX system, which is linked to Boeing’s land-based GMD missile system but can also operate with other naval and land elements. The radar and system have experienced teething problems, which are not unusual for such new technologies, but the program is now entering a make-or-break phase where it will have to perform. The most recent news is a task order under a wide-ranging new support contract for an array of radars that could be worth almost $2 billion dollars…
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