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U.S. Plans I: U.S. to Begin Installations in Alaska This Summer The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to begin installing test equipment for the X-Band radar — a missile detection and tracking system essential to national missile defense — at the Eareckson Air Station on Shemya Island, Alaska, in the coming summer, said Lt. Col. Jim Balocki, deputy commander of the missile defense program for the Alaska district (see GSN, Feb. 28). The MDA has applied for a wetlands permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin constructing the equipment. The agency plans to award a contract to a company for the project by April, Balocki said. Test facilities at Shemya are scheduled to be completed by mid-decade, according to Defense Department officials. The United States will spend $48 million at Shemya this year, Balocki said. Shemya Island provides an ideal strategic location but presents major logistical and weather problems. “It’s awful out there, but the location couldn’t be better,” said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman John Killoran. The military also plans to begin constructing a test missile complex at Fort Greely, Alaska, this summer and a transfer facility for shipping booster missile parts at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The military is also considering building missile launch facilities on Kodiak Island (James MacPherson, Alaska Journal of Commerce, March 4).
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