The Department of Defense's 28-story missile defense radar spent nearly a month parked off the coast of North Korea while the country launched several ballistic missiles, a South Korean source revealed to Stars and Stripes. Although the launches were considered failures, the radar deployment clearly demonstrates the Pentagon's interest in observing foreign missile launches.

According to Stars and Stripes , the mammoth radar system "was sent to an undisclosed location off the Korean Peninsula for a one-month deployment after departing Hawaii in late September." It sailed back to its home port in October. Home port for SBX-1 is Honolulu, where local residents have nicknamed it "The Giant Golf Ball."

The Sea-Based X-Band Radar, or SBX-1, is designed to detect incoming ballistic missile warheads. SBX-1 uses an active electronically scanned array radar, the same type that graces advanced aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The radar itself is composed of a staggering 45,000 transmitter and receiver modules. The result is a radar so powerful it can detect a flying baseball at 2,500 miles. That's the equivalent of detecting a home run out of AT&T Park in San Francisco while sitting in Honolulu. To give you an idea of just how big this radar is, the spherical radome, which protects the radar from the elements, is more than 103 feet high and 120 feet in diameter.

The Giant Golf Ball is technically a ship, built on a semi-submersible hull that was built in Russia, oddly enough. It is capable of traveling at 8 knots under its own power, but is often carried from one destination to another by the famous M/V Blue Marlin ship transport . The ship is 240 feet wide, 390 feet long, and 280 feet high. It is unarmed and has a normal crew of 86.

The SBX-1 would likely have been in position to observe a North Korean test of a Musudan ballistic missile on October 15. The missile exploded shortly after takeoff however, so the radar may not have actually seen anything. A second Musudan test five days later was also considered a failure. It's unknown if the radar was able to collect any useful information.

Built by Boeing and Raytheon, the SBX-1 cost $2.2 billion to develop and construct. Critics charge that its narrow radar beam is useless against a concerted attack consisting of a " stream of missiles interspersed with decoys ".

Source: Stars and Stripes .

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