US NAVY PACIFIC COMMAND: SEA BASED X-BAND RADAR (SBX-1) Platfom. Image via Us Navy
Today’s Ship Photo Of The Day (SPOTD) show’s the U.S. Navy’s Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) underway in the Pacific.
Few are aware or familiar with this awesome ocean-going platform the US Navy Pacific Command has in its inventory. It is the largest X-Band Radar in the world, and it can travel anywhere on the oceans of the world at 8-9 knots and then remain on station indefinitely to track enemy missiles and aircraft.
The SBX-1 is a floating, self-propelled, mobile radar station designed to operate in high winds and heavy seas. It is part of the U.S. Defense Department Missile Defense Agency’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMD) and is mounted on a fifth generation CS-50 twin-hulled semi-submersible drilling rig. Conversion of the vessel was carried out at the AmFELS yard in Brownsville, Texas; the radar mount was built and mounted on the vessel at the Kiewit yard in Ingleside, Texas, near Corpus Christi.
The SBX-1 is home-ported in Adak Island in Alaska but has spent most of its life in the waters surrounding Hawaii. The vessel was built for a recorded cost of $900 million and is crewed by 86 Civilian and Military personnel.
The platform’s massive X-band radome has a max range of 2,500+ miles as well as many small radomes for various communications tasks. The small radomes are rigid, but the central dome is a non-rigid system where the cover is supported by positive air pressure. The amount of air pressure is variable depending on weather conditions.
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in Norway’s capital, wrapping up a month-long joint exercise with NATO in the Norwegian and Barents Sea in a show of strength. The drills in the Sub-Arctic and Arctic region serve to reinforce NATO’s High North posture. A flotilla of naval vessels, including Norwegian frigate HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, escorted the aircraft carrier into Oslo fjord.
U.S. naval forces continue to step up their engagement in the Arctic. While the Coast Guard now has two icebreakers operating in the Bering Sea simultaneously for the first time in more than a decade, the U.S. Navy together with Norwegian allied forces dispatched a four-vessel flotilla to the North Cape at the very top of Norway.
By Idrees Ali, Patricia Zengerle and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) – A large buildup of U.S. naval forces in and around the Southern Caribbean has officials in Caracas and experts in the...
August 30, 2025
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