Raytheon FBX-T Radar

The United States agreed to link Israel up to two advanced missile detection systems against potential attack by a nuclear-armed Iran, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday night, July 30, at the end of his Washington talks. But US officials made it clear that, while prepared to help Israel defend itself against Iranian missile retaliation, they are determined not to be involved in any Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Washington would deliver within six months “before the new US administration arrives” in January, a powerful forward-based X-band FBX-T radar. Increased access to its Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, which spot missile launches, would take longer.

By putting a time frame around delivery, the Bush administration holds off a possible Israeli attack on Iran for as long as possible.

Barak’s talks with Vice President Dick Cheney, defense secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice ended in agreement for Washington to deliver:

1.The transportable FBX-T radar system built by Raytheon Co. which, by providing early and accurate target-tracing and signature data, enlarges the effective battle space of missile interceptors. US officials say it can track an object the size of a baseball from about 4,700 km, and can be launched from air, sea or land.

It would allow the Israeli Arrow anti-missile system to engage an incoming Iranian Shehab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through its estimated 11-minute flight. This would give a potentially targeted Israeli population five minutes to prepare for an Iranian missile hit. This would make up for the deficiency of Arrow’s Green Pine radar, which can detect a missile launch in Iran only after it enters the atmosphere on its way to its Israeli target.

2. Increased access to the US Defense Support System (DSP) satellites, which spot missile launches, would help Israel cover the first 5.5 minutes of a Shehab is firing.

This access has hitherto been provided as per request - such as last September for the Israeli strike against Syria’s nuclear facility.- rather than on a constant basis.

DEBKAfile’s sources note that this access continues to be hedged around by the need in every case for lengthy discussion on whether it is applicable to a given military contingency. It is therefore unlikely to be available before the next president enters the White House and will then be subject to his confirmation. Here too, the Bush administration is stretching out the time table for an Israeli attack well into the future.

3. A US consent in principle to the upgrading of the Israeli, largely American-funded Arrow. The projected Arrow III would be capable of shooting down attacking missiles at greater atmospheric heights than the present version as a safeguard against nuclear fallout. It was not clear whether the administration means to grant Israel the required technology or replace the Arrow with American systems.

The upshot of the Israeli defense minister’s mission to Washington for a boost to Israel’s military capability for a possible preemptive attack on a pre-nuclear-armed Iran was therefore the promise of hardware to give Israel more time to defend itself against Iranian missile reprisals.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5477

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US to give Israel amazing x-band FBX-T radar system

Capable of detecting a baseball in flight 2900 miles away the new radar is set to protect Israel from Iran's threats. Just goes to show that Iran's threats only serve to make Israel more powerful and work against their stated aim of destroying Israel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration appears set to offer Israel a powerful radar system that could greatly boost Israeli defenses against enemy ballistic missiles while tying them directly into a growing U.S. missile shield.

The system is known as a forward-based X-band radar. Transportable by air, it uses high-powered pulsed beams for extremely high-resolution tracking of objects in space such as a missile that could be tipped with a chemical, germ or nuclear warhead.

Built by Raytheon Co, the system has been described by U.S. officials as capable of tracking an object the size of a baseball from about 2,900 miles away.

It would let Israel's Arrow missile defenses engage a Shahab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through what would be its 11-minute flight to Israel from Iran, or six times sooner than Israel's "Green Pine" radar is currently capable of doing.

With an X-Band system at work a missile intercept theoretically would take place over Iran or a neighboring state and not over Israel.

"This is the best thing to lower tensions between Israel and Iran" because Iran presumably would be less likely to attack under such circumstances, Kirk said.

Nearly 70 members of Congress, including the top Democrat and Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Bush this week urging him to offer a warning radar that is "fully integrated" with the emerging U.S. shield.

The letter, dated May 5 and co-authored by Kirk and California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, cited a call by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said Iran's ballistic missile program was expanding.

An X-band radar would improve "battle management," adding to "early warning" from Israel's access since 2001 to the Defense Support Program military satellite network, hub of a U.S. system to detect missile launches worldwide, the letter said.

Lehner, the spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said the Pentagon was planning to have four transportable X-band radars, including one already set up near Shariki in northern Japan to guard against missiles that could be fired by North Korea.

A second is due to be deployed at an unspecified location near Iran, possibly in eastern Turkey or Georgia, assuming permission is granted. In addition, the United States is awaiting final approval for a large, fixed-site, tracking radar in the Czech Republic scheduled for deployment by 2013.

The transportable X-band radar sites could "go wherever they are needed" at the request of U.S. combatant commanders, Lehner said.

Here some links to more X-band fbx-t radar systems. http://www.missilethreat.co...
 http://www.globalsecurity.o...

More on the link http://www.reuters.com/arti...

Apparently the picture in this article is of the x-band radar system.
From http://www.mda.mil/mdaLink/...

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Forward-Based X-Band Radar-Transportable
Alternate Name:  FBX-T
Country:  USA
Basing:  Land; Mobile

Details
The Missile Defense Agency’s Forward-Based X-Band Radar-Transportable (FBX-T) system is a high-resolution, X-band class, phased array radar based upon and designed to be integrated with the hardware and software programs built for such missile interceptors as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

The FBX-T is a highly mobile, land-based, radar system that would be placed in strategic areas overseas in order to provide additional advance warning of potential ballistic threats from locations near the location of a missile’s launch. The FBX-T can be transported to its destination by air, sea or rail. As the first sensor to pick up a threat at launch, the Forward-Based radar would acquire, track, classify, and estimate the trajectory of a missile and then transmit that information to the “adjunct” radar system for more detailed analysis, with eventual transmission to the rest of the multi-layered U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System.

By providing early and accurate target-tracing and signature data the FBX-T would enlarge the effective “battle space” of U.S. interceptors, thereby increasing the threat detection and defense capabilities of the BMDS. Closer proximity to the launch site allows for earlier detection, which decreases the time needed for launch detection as well as supplement tracking and therefore provide greater accuracy for targeting. For example, a missile launched from North Korea or China could be more quickly detected, tracked, and targeted if forward based radars were deployed in such places as South Korea or Japan.

The first FBX-T radar unit is scheduled to be ready for deployment by the end of 2005, with operational tracking capability scheduled for early 2006. Three more FBX-T’s are set to be produced in the coming years, with a final deadline of 2010.

Sources
Missile Defense Agency, BMDS Book: http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/pdf/bmdsbook.pdf Missile Defense Agency, Sensors: http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/sensors.html Globalsecurity.org, http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/fbx-t.htm “MDA: Adjunct Sensors to Close THAAD-Like Radar’s Coverage Gaps” Inside the Army, May 2, 2005.