Sea-Based X-Band Radar (Sbx-1: Fill & Download for Free

I worked on some infrared ladar systems. In fact, I was the system architect on a couple of them.We use the word “radar” when radio waves are used.When we use infrared in exactly the same way as radar, we call it “ladar” or “lidar” depending on which company or school you came from. Ladar is active, just as radar, but it is much more difficult to build a big, powerful ladar than a a big radar.For example, the sea based x-band radar has an average power estimated at 450 kW[1] but a pulsed laser suitable for ladar is less than 1 kW. The SBX is reported to have a range of something like 2000 km. Photon counting ladar with a very narrow beam and well tuned sensors might achieve half the range, but only if aided by a wide area detection and acquisition system (which might include radar or passive sensors). Without the 450 kW, you don’t have the power to scan a laser beam across the whole sky for target acquisition. You also have some restrictions on scanning a big bad laser beam across the whole sky. They are afraid you will hit satellites or aircraft and that makes getting operating permits extremely difficult.If you don’t need the range to the target, and you don’t really need anything other than a simple detection, a powerful continuous wave infrared laser beam is often used as an illuminator. Usually we do not call this lidar or ladar, but rather “active tracking.” Active tracking is used in virtually all high power laser weapons systems.Exactly where it crosses the line from active tracking to ladar is usually if the pulses are shorter than 100 nanoseconds, but that is sort of an arbitrary distinction, and different groups might use different terminology.Footnotes[1] Ballistic Missile Defense: Power of X-Band Radars (June 4, 2012)

Yes. The SBX-1. It used to be moored at Pearl Harbor (looked like a giant floating golf ball on a platform.) I used to live in Hawaii amd saw it there often (years ago - no idea where it is now). Curious about, I did some looking into about it, and found out some cool information. You can read some more about it here: Sea-based X-band Radar - Wikipediain that article, it states: “The radar has been described by Lt. Gen Trey Obering (director of MDA) as being able to track an object the size of a baseball over San Francisco in California from Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, approximately 2,900 miles (4,700 km) away.”

When I was working at Raytheon as part of the Integrated Defense Systems business (at the Missile Defense Center), I was part of the SBX program[1]. This is a early warning radar system designed to play a key part in the US ballistic missile defense system (i.e. intercepting missiles launched at the US, most likely from rogue states such as North Korea). Since the radar is:part of a defensive system, andthe platform itself has no offensive capabilities,I had no moral qualms about working on this weapons system. The way I saw it, my work was potentially saving the lives of innocent civilians rather than resulting in their deaths.Footnotes[1] Sea-based X-band Radar - Wikipedia