Huge floating radar on its way to Seattle
SEATTLE -- If you look out your window tomorrow and see a huge piece of military hardware floating in Puget Sound, don't be alarmed.
The Missile Defense Agency's Sea-Based X-band Radar is on its way to Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island in Seattle's Elliot Bay for maintenance work.
The floating radar platform will be at the shipyard for about three months, but the radar will not operate while it is in Seattle, officials said.
An agency spokeswoman said the platform will enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Monday night and should be visible from Port Angeles on Tuesday morning.
The radar, which is on a 28-story platform with a deck larger than a football field, is expected to arrive at the shipyard in Seattle late Tuesday night.
The radar is designed to feed data about incoming projectiles to a command center and to troops tasked with launching interceptors from underground silos in Alaska and California.
The system is so powerful it can spot baseball-sized objects from 3,000 miles away. That precision enables it to distinguish between missile warheads and decoys so U.S. interceptors can seek the right target.
The Missile Defense Agency's Sea-Based X-band Radar is on its way to Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island in Seattle's Elliot Bay for maintenance work.
The floating radar platform will be at the shipyard for about three months, but the radar will not operate while it is in Seattle, officials said.
An agency spokeswoman said the platform will enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Monday night and should be visible from Port Angeles on Tuesday morning.
The radar, which is on a 28-story platform with a deck larger than a football field, is expected to arrive at the shipyard in Seattle late Tuesday night.
The radar is designed to feed data about incoming projectiles to a command center and to troops tasked with launching interceptors from underground silos in Alaska and California.
The system is so powerful it can spot baseball-sized objects from 3,000 miles away. That precision enables it to distinguish between missile warheads and decoys so U.S. interceptors can seek the right target.
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