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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 11:52 a.m., Friday, August 15, 2003

Alaska gains radar for missile defense

By William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i will not be getting a 25-story floating radar platform, the Missile Defense Agency announced today.

Instead, Adak, Alaska, has been selected as the support base for the Sea-Based Test X-Band radar.

The powerful radar is part of a Missile Defense Agency initiative to target and intercept ballistic missiles in flight as it continues to build a ship- and ground-based defensive shield.

Hawai'i was one of six Pacific sites examined for the radar platform, which looks like an oil rig topped by a big golf ball.

The SBX radar would have been moored several miles off Barbers Point.