Missile Defense Radar Begins Journey to Alaska

An $815 million X-band radar platform is expected to soon begin its journey to Alaska’s Adak Island to become part of the U.S. missile defense program, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 8).

The system, built by Raytheon and Boeing in Texas, is 21 stories high and as wide as a football field. As it is too large to fit through the Panama Canal, the platform will sail around South America. It is scheduled to reach Adak late this year or in early 2006, according to AP.

The radar is expected to sit off the coast of the Aleutian chain island and will be connected to missile interceptors in Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (Associated Press/Denton Record-Chronicle, Aug. 1).

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