Floatin’ Smokey: The USA’s SBX Radar

As rogue state proliferation by the likes of North Korea made missile defense a growing priority for nations including the USA, Japan, and Israel, 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 was dismantled long ago – though Russia still maintains its counterpart System A-135 network around Moscow. Something new would be needed.

Enter Raytheon’s new XBR radar, based on an SBX-1 platform that looks a lot like a mobile oil drilling rig. 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 interference in the stormy Pacific.

Boeing SBX system is linked to its land-based GMD (Ground-based Mid-course Defense) missile system but can also operate with other naval and land elements.

The XBR Radar and SBX Platform

Initially, the SDX will provide the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System with an advanced training and decoy discrimination capability that will help interceptor missiles located in Alaska and California provide a defense against a limited long-range missile attack.

Information from SBX would go to the missile system nerve center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which could then deploy defensive missiles from sites in Alaska and California. The radar’s position in the northern Pacific would allow it to keep an eye on North Korea, which is viewed as the greatest missile threat to the United States at present. It had been homeported midway along the Aleutian Islands chain in Adak, Alaska, but SBX-1 is capable of moving throughout the Pacific Ocean to support both missile defense advanced testing and defensive operations.

Tests of GMD intercept missiles thus far have been hit-or-miss, with close to half of the interceptors either not getting off the ground or missing the target. Naval launches of Raytheon’s SM-3 missile have had far more success, however, and the SBX has been used in a number of these launches as a collaborating element. Meanwhile, system development of the land-based GMD system continues.

After the radar was removed from operational status in 2012 as a money-saving move, it was located in Hawaii. By April 2013, however, North Korean threats pushed the US Navy to activate SBX and sail it into the Pacific once more.

Boeing Co. is GMD’s prime contractor, including the GMD missiles and overall integration of SBX. Raytheon is the primary subcontractor, with responsibility for the XBR radar. Alpha Marine Services’ M/V Dove is chartered as the platform’s supply vessel, and Interocean American Shipping Corp. holds the crewing charter for the underlying SBX-1 vessel.

The XBR Radar

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.

The XBR radar has been fitted to a huge mobile oil platform built by a Russian firm. It would normally steam out to offshore waters and be used as a base to drill oil and gas wells. Instead, SBX will steam at a top speed of about 7 mph and add a mobile element to the USA’s missile defense network.

The $815 million, mechanically-slewed, X-band phased array assembly is 280 feet (85 meters) tall, and weighs 2,400 tons. The radome alone 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 is designed to withstand 130+ mph winds and a “100-year storm” at sea. This makes it far more durable than any air-supported radome of remotely comparable size, and its design and fabrication required development of several new processes, materials, and technologies.

New technologies have been developed within the radar as well. XBR leverages lessons learned on earlier radar programs, including the Ground-Based Radar – Prototype (GBR-P), located at Kwajalein in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the land-based AN/TPY-2 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar. Raytheon continued to work on design and manufacturing enhancements, including 3 iterations of cost and reliability improvements to Raytheon’s Gallium Arsenide Transmit/Receive (GaN T/R) module, which lies at the heart of its X-Band radar family. That’s good, because XBR uses over 45,000 T/R modules, and has a Physical Aperture of 384 m2 and Active Aperture of 248 m2.

XBR provides 2-90 degree elevation coverage (not exactly vertical, can be tipped upward), and about 270 degrees of azimuth coverage (beam width profile). It scan a horizon of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) at a sensitivity so great that it could detect the movement of a baseball at the opposite end of the United States. X-band radars also have much tighter discrimination than UHF radars like Alaska’s Cobra Dane, which means they’re faster and better at telling separating incoming warheads apart from debris and decoys.

Contracts & Events

Unless otherwise noted, the US Missile Defense Agency (US MDA) in Huntsville, AL manages these contracts.

August 16/21: Hercules Great Eastern won a $9.1 modification to exercise and fund the second 12-month option on a firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursable elements for the offshore support vessel Hercules. This vessel will be utilized to support refueling and resupply of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1). The contract includes a 12-month base period, three 12-month option periods, and one 11-month option period. Work will take place in the US Pacific Command’s area of responsibility. Estimated completion date is July 15, 2024.

September 25/19: Research And Develoment Support Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems won a $500.6 million contract modification in order to perform research and development support for the Army Navy Transportable Radar Surveillance Control Model-2 and Sea-Based X-Band radar. Raytheon’s nine-story-high X-band Radar is the world’s largest X-band radar. The sea-based X-band platform that it sits on stands more than 250 feet high and displaces more than 50,000 tons. It consists of a semi-submersible oil production platform topped with the XBR. The AN/TPY-2 is a missile defense radar that can detect, classify and track ballistic missiles. It operates in the X-band of the electromagnetic spectrum, which enables it to see targets more clearly, and it has two modes – one to detect ballistic missiles as they rise, and another that can guide interceptors toward a descending warhead. The modification also includes continued product improvement, warfighter support, engineering services, Ballistic Missile Defense System test subject matter experts support, modeling and simulation SME support, and cybersecurity. Work will take place in Woburn, Massachusetts. Period of performance is from November 1, 2017 through October 31, 2022.

August 17/18: Sea-based BMD The Navy is contracting TOTE Services to support SBX-1. The company is being awarded with a firm-fixed-price contract valued at $11.1 million. The company will be responsible for operating and maintaining the Sea-Based X-Band Radar vessel. The X-band radar, also known as the SBX, was originally planned as a land-based system but a sea-based system became possible when the Bush administration withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. It constitutes a mid-course fire control radar based on a seagoing semi-submersible vessel. The $815 million, mechanically-slewed, X-band phased array assembly is 280 feet tall, and weighs 2,400 tons. The radome alone 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 is designed to withstand 130+ mph winds and a “100-year storm” at sea. The radar performs cued search, precision tracking, object discrimination and missile kill assessment. The in-flight interceptor communication system data terminal transfers commands from the GMD fire control system to the interceptor missile during its engagement with the target missile. This contract is scheduled for completion by September 2019, but does include several options which could extend the contract until end of March, 2024. The total cumulative value of this contract would rise to $65.3 million, if all options are exercised.

April 26/13: What’s My Role? The GAO looks at the Missile Defense Agency’s full array of programs in report #GAO-13-342, “Missile Defense: Opportunity To Refocus On Strengthening Acquisition Management.” With respect to SBX, it has this to say:

“MDA faces continuing portfolio challenges…. For example, after approximately $2 billion had been spent in several years of development, the SBX sea-based radar was downgraded from operational status to a limited test status because of funding limitations…. Limited test support status means SBX will support BMDS flight and ground tests as appropriate, but can be recalled to active, operational status when warnings indicate a need…. By transitioning SBX to a limited test support status, MDA officials expect to save almost $670 million in operation and maintenance costs for fiscal years 2013 through 2018.

Because SBX is primarily used to support GMD’s defense of the United States, removing SBX from operational status also changes how the BMDS operates…. [Northern] command has developed alternatives for conducting engagements without the SBX. However… there is a difference in how the BMDS operates without SBX, the details of which are classified.”

Those plans must include the huge Cobra Dane PAVE PAWS radar in Alaska – but its sustainment funds only exist to 2015, its UHF frequency isn’t good for target discrimination, and it will need another upgrade soon. Replacing Cobra Dane would cost an estimated $1 billion, though the NRC’s suggestion of a “GBX” stacked TPY-2 radar could bring that cost down considerably.

April 1/13: Off the bench. The USA deploys SBX, sailing it from Pearl Harbor and toward North Korea in the wake of serous threats made against the USA as well as South Korea. Obviously, the Navy isn’t talking about exactly where it’s headed, but there are many safe places in the Pacific that offer a better vantage point for North Korea’s expected “test” launches. Chosun Ilbo | Hankyoreh | Hawaii News Now | KITV Hawaii | conservative Heritage Foundation.

Dec 13/11: Support. Boeing in Huntsville, AL receives a $15.1 million sole-source cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification, exercising an option for continued SBX operation and sustainment services from Jan 1/12 through June 30/12.

Work will be performed in Huntsville, AL. FY 2012 research, development, test, and evaluation funds will be used (HQ0147-09-C-0007).

Nov 1/11: Support. The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awards Raytheon IDS of Woburn, MA a maximum $307.6 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract. Under this new contract, Raytheon will maintain software required to operate “the X-band family of radars,” and perform and Ballistic Missile Defense System test planning, execution and analysis.

Discussions with Raytheon personnel confirmed that the funding applies to SBX’s XBR radar, as well as Raytheon’s AN/TPY-2 radars (THAAD, European missile defense, deployed in Israel & Japan), and a “Ground Based Radar Prototype” that they’re working on as a technology demonstrator.

Work will be performed in Woburn, MA from Nov 1/11 through Oct 31/13, and the MDA’s FY 2012 research, development, test and evaluation funds will be used to fund initial orders. The MDA at Redstone Arsenal, AL manages the contract (HQ0147-12-D-0005).

Oct 19/11: To Hawaii. The US MDA announces that SBX is about the head into Pearl Habror, HI for scheduled maintenance and crew training operations.

Aug 20/11: Maintenance. SBX leaves from Vigor Shipyards (formerly Todd Shipyards) in Seattle, WA, where the sea platform has been undergoing scheduled maintenance and planned upgrades over the past 3 months. A Naval Vessel Protection Zone will be applied to SBX as it departs, and will be monitored by the US Coast Guard. US MDA.

April 19/11: Maintenance. A sole-source, not-to-exceed $27.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) contract modification. The firm will provide support for SBX’s shipyard maintenance at Todd Pacific Shipyard in Seattle, WA, from March 2011 through September 2011.

$10.4 million in FY 2011 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation funds will be used to incrementally fund this effort (HQ0147-09-C-0007, P00028).

Oct 7/10: Maintenance. The Missile Defense Agency is planning to have SBX undergo modifications and maintenance at the Todd Shipyard in Seattle, WA. Work is expected to start in March 2011, cost about $9.4 million, and take about 90 days.

Work on the vessel’s thrusters and other modifications must begin in March, 2011, in order to maintain its Certificate of Inspection issued by the American Bureau of Shipping. Maintaining SBX requires a port with water depth of at least 50 feet, and there are only 3 facilities on the US West Coast with deep enough facilities: Todd, Naval Station Everett, WA; and Naval Air Station North Island, CA. US MDA.

Sept 30/10: Development. Boeing in Huntsville, AL, receives a $27.9 million sole-source cost-plus-award-fee modification to continue Sea-based X-band Radar development, test and evaluation efforts.

Work will be performed in Huntsville, AL from October 2010 through July 2011. This procurement will be funded with both FY 2010 and FY 2011 Missile Defense Agency research, development, test and evaluation funds (HQ0147-09-C-0008).

March 23/09: Sub-contractors. Raytheon announces a $27 million contract from Boeing to support the Ground-based Mid-course Defense system’s 6-month bridge effort. Work will include continued evolution, maturation, test, and verification of the Raytheon-built X-Band Radar aboard the Boeing-developed SBX, plus work on the Upgraded Early Warning Radars at Beale Air Force Base, CA, and at Fylingdales, England; and the Cobra Dane Upgrade Radar at Shemya, AK.

Dec 5/08: Testing. The USA’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system successfully intercepts a target warhead in a live-fire test that includes SBX.

The long-range ballistic missile target lifted off from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska. In response, a GMD interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, and received target data updates from the GMD fire control system, which collected and combined data from 4 different sensors: naval AEGIS Long Range Surveillance and Track system; the AN/TPY-2 land-based; the Upgraded Early Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base, CA; and SBX. After flying into space, the interceptor released its exoatmospheric kill vehicle, which tracked, intercepted and destroyed the target warhead. Norm Tew, Boeing’s chief engineer for GMD:

“This test was an important milestone for the Sea-Based X-Band Radar… This was the first intercept test in which data from SBX was combined with data from the other sensors to provide tracking data and guidance aimpoint updates to [a live] interceptor.”

See: Boeing.

July 18/08: Testing. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency tests the land-based Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system of sensors, including SBX. While previous tests typically involved a single target-tracking sensor, this test used 4: a ship-mounted AEGIS Long Range Surveillance and Track system in the Pacific; an AN/TPY-2 radar in Juneau, AK; the Upgraded Early Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base, CA, and the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) in the Pacific.

During the test, the sensors detected, tracked and assessed a long-range ballistic missile target launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska. The sensors provided target information via ground and satellite links to GMD’s dual-node, distributed fire control system, located at Fort Greely, AK, and NORAD HQ in Colorado Springs, CO. Boeing.

March 17/08: Support. Raytheon announces 2 two task orders worth $28.3 million, as part of an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity Consolidated Contractor Logistics Services program to operate and sustain the US MDA’s X-Band radars (AN/TPY-2 used in the FBR and THAAD, GBR-P radar, and XBR/SBX). The first task order, valued at $1.2 million, provides management services for the operation and sustainment of the Raytheon-developed X-Band radar (XBR) aboard the Sea-Based X-Band radar (SBX) vessel and subsequent task orders. The second task order, valued at $27.1 million, covers the XBR/SBX’s day-to-day management, direction and control, and operations.

Raytheon adds that this contract award signifies a long-term partnership between Raytheon and MDA to consolidate operations and sustainment, designed to improve operational availability and reduce the total cost of ownership by identifying and leveraging efficiencies and improvements throughout the missile defense mission. This contract is structured to include a 5-year base period worth $756 million, plus 5 one-year options, bringing the total potential value to $1.9 billion over 10 years.

Work will be performed at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems Missile Defense Center in Woburn, MA; Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; and by Raytheon Technical Services Company personnel at sites designated by the MDA.

Sept 20/07: Infrastructure. Boeing announces that the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) mooring system has been installed at SBX’s homeport near the Aleutian island of Adak, Alaska. Boeing sub-contractor Manson Construction used tugs, barges and cranes to place the mooring system’s 8 anchors on the bottom of Kuluk Bay. Heavy machinery aboard a barge then dragged the 75-metric-ton anchors, embedding them into the sea bed. The construction team completed the installation 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

Boeing’s partners in this effort included partners Manson Construction Co., Golder Co., Glosten Associates, the US Missile Defense Agency; and the American Bureau of Shipping, which had to ensure that the work met all mooring installation standards.

March 21/07: Testing. The US MDA completes a Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system test using the SBX radar, which detected, tracked and assessing a long-range ballistic missile target launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA.

This was primarily a test of the system’s sensors and handoffs. As part of the GMD system, SBX provided that target information via satellite to GMD’s Colorado-based fire control system, which used the data to simulate a target shootdown with a simulated ground-based interceptor. Boeing.

Jan 4/07: Support. Raytheon Company has announced a $32.7 million subcontract to provide sustainment support for the X-Band Radar (XBR) portion of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX). The award was made by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, as SBX is considered to be part of the Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), and Boeing is the prime contractor for that segment.

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) will provide trained personnel for on-platform sustainment and operation of the XBR, along with radar maintenance and development of spares. The contract will run through 2007, and work will be performed at the company’s Missile Defense Center in Woburn, MA; the Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA; and Raytheon Technical Services Company on site at the SBX platform.

June 8/05: Support. The Raytheon Co. in Waltham, MA receives an indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity contract to provide logistics support services to operate and maintain up to 4 forward-based X-Band transportable radars to support the Ballistic Missile Defense System. The maximum potential value of the contract is $260.9 million. Most work will take place at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Woburn, MA from May 26/05 through May 25/10. The Missile Defense Agency issued the contract (HQ0006-05-C-0016).

At this point, the platform is expected to arrive in Adak, Alaska on schedule by late December 2005, and may get a full test when it nears Hawaii and a nearby missile range on its voyage north. Integration, testing and certification will evaluation will continue throughout its voyage. Meanwhile, the final touches are being put on the sea-based X-band radar system, which is expected to ship out on a 20,000-mile (32,000-km) trip from Ingleside/Corpus Christi, TX to Adak, AK in the Aleutian Islands.

April 5/05: Raytheon announces that it BMDS X-Band Radar has been lifted aboard the SBX-1 platform.

Nov 21/02: Long-lead. The Boeing Co. in Anaheim, CA received a $30 million cost-plus-award-fee contract modification for acquisition of long-lead items associated with the Test X-Band Radar (XBR) capability in support of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Program, as well as associated labor costs. Subject to completion of environmental analysis, this modification is necessary to ensure that a Test XBR is ready to be integrated into the Ballistic Missile Defense System Test Bed in the 4th quarter of FY 2005. Raytheon Electronic Systems, a major subcontractor, in Bedford, MA, will primarily perform the effort.

None of these funds will be used to acquire the sea-based platform, in accordance with direction contained in the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the conference report for H.R. 5010 (P.L. 107-248), the FY 2003 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (HQ0006-01-C-0001).

Additional Readings and Sources

Background: SBX

* US MDA – Sea-Based X-Band Radar [PDF].

* Claremont Institute, MissileThreat.com – Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX).

* GlobalSecurity.org – Sea-Based X-Band radar.

* Raytheon – Sea-Based X-Band Radar for Missile Defense [PDF].

Background: Related Systems

* HowStuffworks.com – How Missile Defense Systems Will Work.

* Boeing – Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) System.

* DID – CEC: Cooperative Engagement for Fleet Defense.

* Foxtrot Alpha – These Are The Wild Radar Ships That Make Missile Defense Possible. SBX is included, along with the Cobra King system, SS Pacific Tracker, and several others. June 24/14 article.

News & Views

* US National Research Council (September 2012) – Making Sense of Ballistic Missile Defense: An Assessment of Concepts and Systems for U.S. Boost-Phase Missile Defense in Comparison to Other Alternatives It goes far beyond that, with well-researched recommendations across the entire BMD array.

* MostlyMissileDefense (Aug 28/12) – Ballistic Missile Defense: Why the Current GMD System’s Radars Can’t Discriminate. And why X-Band is better.

* Report to the US Missile Defense Agency (June 2/06) – SBX-1 Operational Suitability and Viability Assessment [PDF]. Submitted by L-3 Communications subsidiary SY Coleman.

* Reuters (June 7/05) – Missile defense radar nearing completion in Texas.

* SpaceWar.com (May 23/05) – Radome Successfully Installed on Sea-Based X-Band Radar.