03 April 2013

News Story: U.S. Deploys Sea-based Radar Amid North Korea Crisis


WASHINGTON — The United States has deployed a sophisticated sea-based radar to the ocean east of Japan to track any North Korean ballistic missile launches, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

The Sea based X-Band Radar (SBX) looks like an enormous balloon mounted on a large ocean oil rig. The large platform, however, floats and holds a dome radar designed to track ballistic missiles, then feed the data to a separate command that can fire an interceptor missile to shoot it down.

A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the move as a “routine deployment” that is “not in relation to current events.”

Read the full story at DefenseNews