New Radar Sought by Congress Likely Would Be Fielded in Alaska, Sources Say

Early warning radar dot the landscape at Clear Air Force Station in Alaska.

Early warning radar dot the landscape at Clear Air Force Station in Alaska. United States Missile Defense Agency

Defense bill calls for another X-band radar system to help counter a nuclear attack.

A powerful new radar that Congress wants the U.S. military to acquire would likely be fielded in Alaska, according to informed sources.

The compromise defense authorization bill worked out by House and Senate negotiators includes a requirement that the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency deploy another X-band radar system aimed at helping defend the United States from any potential intercontinental ballistic missile attack by North Korea.

The Defense Department policy-setting legislation, which the House passed on Thursday and now awaits a final vote by the Senate, would authorize $30 million in new monies to initiate deployment "at a location optimized to support the defense of the United States homeland," reads the draft text.

The likeliest place to host the radar is somewhere on the West Coast, say multiple Capitol Hill sources and others.

"My understanding is they are going to put a down-payment on building a long-range radar that would most likely be based near the Clear Air [Station] to cover a good part of the globe, including all the way down to Hawaii," said Riki Ellison, chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

The Air Force base is located some 80 miles southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. Its mission for decades has been to monitor for possible long-range missiles fired at the United States.

"There's no other place to put it," said a Senate Republican aide. This source and others provided comment anonymously for this article because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

The United States presently deploys an AN/TPY-2 radar, using X-band technology, at the Shariki military base in northern Japan that monitors for signs of possible ballistic missiles fired by North Korea. A second early-warning AN/TPY-2 unit is slated for fielding by fall 2014 at the Kyogamisaki air base on Japan's western coast.

However, that type of radar is not powerful enough to provide the kind of detailed tracking and targeting information needed to initiate a missile-intercept response to protect the homeland, according to Ellison.

The envisioned radar would be "much more powerful than the AN/TPY-2" and could "be used both as a targeting and early-warning radar," he said.

The military also currently fields the Sea-Based X-band Radar 1 -- a powerful floating radar that can detect small objects in outer space as far away as 2,500 miles and track ballistic missiles throughout the entire course of their flight. The radar was repositioned this past spring to better monitor for North Korea missile attacks during a period of heightened tensions with the Kim Jong Un regime.

However, the sea-based radar is not designed to provide "persistent" tracking information of the kind wanted for around-the-clock awareness of North Korea, according to Ellison. Additionally, the floating radar in future years may need to be relocated to the Atlantic Ocean if the Iranian missile threat becomes more pressing, he said.

The GOP aide said an additional X-band radar is something the Missile Defense Agency wants in order to improve the effectiveness of the country's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.

The Missile Defense Agency declined requests to comment on the matter, including on whether it assesses a military requirement for having yet another radar monitoring North Korea.

The GMD system presently is composed of 30 long-range interceptors located in silos in California and Alaska, along with supporting X-band radar technology. It is the military's primary defense against a possible North Korean ICBM attack on the continental United States.

A 2012 National Research Council report concluded the GMD system was "fragile" and noted particular concerns with its ability to seamlessly monitor and track ballistic missiles and their warheads during all phases of flight.

The decision this past spring to eliminate the Precision Tracking Space System -- an MDA program that would have placed satellites in outer space to provide near real-time tracking data on launched ballistic missiles -- meant it became all the more urgent to do something that would fill the void in GMD system tracking abilities, Ellison said.

Improving the GMD system's radar capabilities is "equally as important as modernizing the Ground-based Interceptor," Ellison said.

It could take roughly three years for the new radar to be operationalized, according to Ellison and the GOP staffer.

The bicameral defense authorization bill also includes a provision requiring the Missile Defense Agency to be ready by 2019 to deploy on the Eastern seaboard "sensor" capabilities that would monitor for possible ICBM attacks from Iran. That timeline would be sped up should Tehran successfully flight-test a long-range ballistic missile before 2019.

The GOP aide said the Republican side of Congress wanted to have sensor capabilities readied on a shorter time scale to track Iranian threats. However, because the North Korean missile danger is seen as "more imminent," the decision reached by Senate and House Armed Services committee negotiators was to prioritize deploying a radar to monitor the North, the staffer said.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.