A Brief History of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar-1

In January 2003, the United States government purchased a semi-submersible 50,000-ton seagoing platform from Moss Maritime, a Norwegian company specializing in special purpose offshore vessels and platforms, for use in the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA’s) layered Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). MDA’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense Joint Program Office, a BMDS component, oversaw platform modifications at the Keppel AMFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas; assembly and installation of the world’s largest X-band radar onto the platform at Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside, Texas; and additional modifications at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The self-propelled vessel, in addition to the X-band radar, includes a bridge, control rooms, living quarters, workspaces, storage areas, a power generation area, and a helicopter landing pad. It also contains a command, control and communications system and an Inflight Interceptor Communication System Data Terminal. The platform maintains 60-days of supplies and fuel.

In July 2005, MDA officially named the vessel the “Sea-Based X-Band Radar-1,” or “SBX-1.” The SBX-1 underwent a wide range of sea trials and exercises in the Gulf of Mexico prior to beginning its journey around South America to its home port of Adak, Alaska. Moreover, the mobility of the SBX-1 allows its movement throughout ocean areas to support both missile defense advanced testing and defensive operations.

Integrating the SBX-1 into the BMDS provides an advanced tracking and countermeasures discrimination capability to assist interceptor missiles located at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in defending against a limited long-range missile attack aimed at the United States. Furthermore, the SBX-1 will support other missile defense elements designed to intercept and destroy shorter range ballistic missiles that might be used against the United States, its deployed forces, its friends, and its allies.