self-propelling X-band Radar floats on Gulf - hopes to avoid Hurricanes

[donsu]

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/index.php?id=640


Everythin's Bigger in Texas: Sea-based X-band Radar

San Antonio Express-News staff writer Jeorge Zarazua got a chance to climb around the Missile Defense Agency’s gigantic Sea-based X-band Radar (SBX)—a missile defense radar mounted on a self-propelled oil-drilling rig.

The SBX is larger than a football field, which means its journey from Texas to Hawaii (and points beyond) will not include a trip through the Panama Canal. Officials, Zarazua report, had hoped to put the SBX out to sea before June 1 to beat the hurricane season. This could be exciting.

The SBX is also one of the few missile defense activities undertaken by the Bush Administration that required relief from the ABM Treaty. X-band radars are supposed to help discriminate warheads from any accompanying decoys or debris.

-snip-

Both the decision to build SBX instead of a more capable ground-based radar in Alaska and recent test failures stem from a series of deliberate choices by the Bush Administration to meet the arbitrary 2004 election, er, end of year, deadline set by the President. In other words, the President traded the ability to defeat Kim Jong-Il for the ability to defeat John Kerry.
-snip-
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read on to see what the X-band is supposed to do. as the gen. says: it's a test

"General Obering called the completion of the SBX a “major milestone” for testing that “also gives us an operational capability from a North Korean threat.”


so it can't go thru the Panama Canal. does that mean it will go around the tip of South America? Laughing wildly at the thought.

[hootinholler]

1. when you're in the Gulf and going to Hawaii...

And you can't use the ditch, then you go around either cape fear or the cape of good hope.

Should be no worse than the North Atlantic or North Pacific in winter.

Begs the question: We couldn't build this in Ca. or Or. or Wa.??? I guess only Tx. has the ability to build an oil rig.

Bwahahaha!

-Hoot