MISSILE DEFENSE RADAR is on the way to Alaska...
Its platform is as large as two football fields:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is readying an ultra-sophisticated radar system to float slowly around the world to Alaska where it will play a key role in a multibillion-dollar project to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.
The 2,000-ton Sea-Based X-Band Radar is to be hoisted aboard a platform as large as two football fields this week or next, depending on wind and weather in Corpus Christi, Texas, where it has been under initial sea trials.
The radar is designed to track and distinguish long-range ballistic missiles from decoys that could be used in an attack on the United States.
After being assembled and tested extensively in the Gulf of Mexico, the entire structure will set sail on a five- to seven-month trip around Cape Horn at the tip of Latin America and into the Pacific bound for Alaska's Aleutian islands.
