The Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX): A Floating Guardian
Operational since 2006 and home-ported at Pearl Harbor, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) is a powerful floating radar system used to help defend the United States from long-range missile threats.¹ What makes SBX especially interesting is that it did not start as a military system at all. In the late 1990s, the massive platform was built as an offshore oil drilling rig for use in Russian Arctic waters.² The Russian oil company canceled the project before the platform ever entered service. In the early 2000s, the United States saw an opportunity to reuse this robust ocean platform as the base for a giant radar system. Between 2004 and 2005, the United States bought and converted the platform into a missile-tracking station. Engineers installed engines, power systems, command centers, and one of the most advanced radar systems in the world.³ By 2006, SBX became operational under the control of the Missile Defense Agency within the U.S. Department of Defense.¹ Unlike warships, SBX does not carry weapons. Its job is to see — to detect and track ballistic missiles as they travel through space. Its X-band radar can track tiny objects from thousands of miles away and help determine which objects are actual warheads and which are harmless decoys.³ This tracking data is then shared with interceptor systems based in Alaska, California, and on U.S. Navy ships.⁴ Hawaiʻi is the ideal home base because it sits between Asia and North America, right along the primary missile test paths used in the Pacific.¹ The large white dome usually seen on SBX protects the radar from weather and ocean spray. The radome is removed for maintenance, as seen in this photo. Notice the large crane used to service the radar equipment. Today, SBX remains one of the most important sensor platforms in America’s missile defense system.
Footnotes (Turabian Style)
Missile Defense Agency. Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) Fact Sheet. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense.
Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX).” Missile Defense Project. Washington, DC.
Boeing Defense. Sea-Based X-Band Radar Program Overview. Arlington, VA: Boeing Company.
U.S. Navy. Maritime Support of Missile Defense Operations. Washington, DC: Department of the Navy.
