It’s an oil platform with a giant golf ball on it. No, it’s an an oceangoing catamaran. No, wait, it’s the “Sea-Based X-Band Radar”:http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/pdf/sbx.pdf. Supposed to be “based in Adak, Alaska”:http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/sbx.html, it’s been hanging around sunny Hawaii for the longest time now.
“So said William Cole”:http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090222/COLUMNISTS32/902220354/-1 last month in the _Honolulu Advertiser_:
Since the “giant golfball” arrived here in 2006 from Corpus Christi, Texas, for a temporary stay, it has spent 307 cumulative days in Pearl Harbor, and 791 days out in the Pacific for testing or operations, according to the MDA.
Has it ever pulled into port in Adak?
“No,” the Missile Defense Agency said in an e-mailed response to questions from The Advertiser.
Did the SBX, as it is known, remain outside port in Adak?
“It loitered in the vicinity of Adak for two weeks in 2007,” MDA said.
Well, if you were a giant oceangoing catamaran, where would you prefer to be?
If North Korea’s launch “goes as planned”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2220/dprks-stay-clear-zones, SBX — as it is known — won’t have to roam far to get a good look. It can “take its time”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1938/weekend-project.
Aleut Corporation Annual Reports
2005: “Future fuel sales may also
be affected by the U.S. Missile Defense
SBX radar platform to be home ported at
Adak, which should arrive within the next
year.”
2006: “Future fuel sales may also
be affected by the U.S. Missile Defense
SBX radar platform to be home ported at
Adak, which should arrive within the next
year.”
2007: “Future fuel sales may also be
affected by the U.S. Missile Defense
SBX radar platform to be home ported at
Adak.”
2008: “Future fuel sales may also be
affected by the U.S. Missile Defense SBX
radar platform to be home ported at Adak
in the future.”
++++++++++++++++++
Lieutenant General Henry A. Obering III, USAF
Director, Missile Defense Agency
Missile Defense Program and Fiscal Year 2009 Budget
Before the
Senate Armed Services Committee
Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
April 1, 2008
The Sea-Based X-band radar (SBX) completed crew training
and testing off the coast of Hawaii and transited to the
North Pacific to conduct a cold weather shakedown off Adak,
Alaska, where it will be home-ported in 2009.
++++++++++++++++++
Posted on: Sunday, February 22, 2009
‘Golfball’ seems at home here
By William Cole
Advertiser Columnist
By default, Hawai’i is turning out to be a much more hospitable port for the $900 million floating Sea-Based X-Band Radar than its intended home of Adak, Alaska.
It is now expected to head to Adak in the summer of 2010, the Missile Defense Agency said.
You mean it’s not Disney’s new Epcot Center at sea? Danggit!
I hadn’t realized before that thing was coming from Corpus Christi and thought—must have been quite a sight lumbering through the Panama canal. Unfortunately, that was not to be:
The Sea-based X-Band Radar system located on a massive oil platform, has begun its journey from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern Pacific Ocean via the Straits of Magellan in South America.
The large floating radar is too large too travel through the Panama canal, and instead of traveling under its own power it will be shipped aboard a heavy transport vessel called Blue Marlin.
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2005/q4/nr_051114t.html
Quite a long trip, that.
Actually, I think it’s an ad for the Navy-Marine Golf Course, just down the road in Honolulu. Either that, or a prototype for Rover from the Prisoner.