01/07/2015: The SBX is a one of a kind radar deployed near Japan used for monitoring missile threats in the Pacific, notably from North Korea.
Credit:Commander Navy Region Hawaii:10/24/14
According an Hawaii News Now story published in 2011:
The SBX-1 structure towers, 28 stories high.
“It’s similar to a Nimiz aircraft carrier in its size, in its width and height. So, it’s about 240 feet wide. And from the bottom of the keel to the top of the radome it’s about 280 feet. It’s only about 1/3 as long as a carrier, only about 330 ft long.”
Inside this golf ball shaped radome, visible miles away from Pearl Harbor, is America’s finest technology. The largest, most powerful phased array X-band radar in the world.
“And its mounted on a self propelled, semi-submersible commercial oil drilling platform. It has 4 electric thrusters and allows it to be propelled so we can position the SBX-1 any where we need in the Pacific Ocean to take advantage of a test situation or a particular threat or operation,” stated Braddom.
It’s so powerful say MDA officials, that the SBX-1 can track a baseball sized object in space some 3,000 miles away.
In 2008, the SBX-1 helped destroy a defunct spy satellite which was feared to release toxic hydrazine fuel if it fell to the Earth. SBX-1 tracked the satellite which was located about 150 miles above the earth, traveling at 17,000 miles per hour. SBX-1 then gave the information to the USS Lake Erie which launched a modified missile without a warhead to impact the satellite and destroy the fuel compartments deemed a threat.
The SBX-1 radar is just one of many eyes, or sensors within the Ballistic Missile Defense System. Enemy warheads are designed to throw off tracking systems, but the SBX works against it.
“SBX’s key role is not only to acquire and track,” said Braddom, “but to be able to discriminate a warhead from the decoys that may be associated with it and communicate that information back to the ballistic missile defense systems command and control.”
Then the war fighters determine how to intercept it, whether from a missile launched at sea or on land.
It takes about a hundred people to secure, operate and maintain the SBX radar which is activated only at sea. To stabalize the structure, the SBX ballasts down about 30 feet, submerging it to allow its four main thrusters maximum ability to stabalize the structure to improve its ability track the target object, even in bad weather.
Inside the radome, said Braddom, “The entire antennae mount, that 4.8 million pounds that’s inside the radome can actually rotate and elevate to make sure we can see and track a missile as it follows its course.”
What’s even more fascinating about SBX-1 is that the radome itself is not solid. It’s covered by a very thin, specially designed, kevlar-strength material that protects the radar within.
Lt. Braddom said, “It’s a pressurized dome. The fabric is held up by air pressure. The dome itself weighs a little bit more than 17,000 pounds.”
The $1 billon piece of hardware took two years to build and costs about $150 million a year to operate. Since 2005, SBX has undergone numerous tests, development and upgrades to increase its capabilities. And now the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency, which develops and acquires missile defense technology, is ready to hand it over to the Navy for use within the Pacific Command.
“Right now, we’re building up to the transfer which will occur in many steps,” said Braddom. “First the transfer of the vessel itself, which is what brought us into Pearl Harbor, to complete those activities.” The transfer will take place of the course of the next few months. It’s not known when the vessel will head back to open waters. MDA officials say that for security reasons, they don’t officially release the departure date of the vessel in advance.
The Navy will actually run the missions of the SBX-1, while the radar itself will continue to be operated and maintained by MDA contractors. The radar was designed and built by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems for Boeing Company, which is the prime contractor on the project for MDA.
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/16105886/special-report-exclusive-tour-of-the-sbx-radar
And in a Honolulu Star Advertiser piece by William Cole written in 2013:
U.S. officials said a Japan-based U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer capable of shooting down ballistic missiles had been positioned slightly closer to the Korean peninsula, the Associated Press reported.
The SBX, which has the appearance of a giant golf ball on a six-legged platform, sailed out of Pearl Harbor March 23, 2012, about three weeks ahead of what ended up being a failed April 13 North Korea rocket test.
The Missile Defense Agency, which oversees the SBX as part of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system, could not be reached for comment today.
The phased array radar inside the inflatable dome tracks U.S. and foreign missile tests with 45,000 transmission and receiving elements, and is so powerful it could see a baseball flying through the air 2,500 miles away, according to the agency.
The SBX returned to Pearl Harbor in late May from its last voyage. Asked at the time if the radar ship monitored the launch, Pam Rogers, who was then a Missile Defense Agency spokeswoman, said, “We can’t discuss the nature of the SBX’s operations.”
The one-of-a-kind, $1 billion SBX is a combination of an advanced X-band radar mounted on a mobile, oceangoing, semi-submersible platform.