Providing the Czech Republic and the U.S.A. agree to locate U.S. missile defense system radar station on the territory of the Czech Republic and this agreement is approved by the Parliament of the Czech Republic, one of X-band radars would be in operation in the Czech Republic from 2011.
The radar is made up of a phased-array antenna with the grid area of 105 square metres; it works in the so-called X-band (8 to 12 GHz, which means the 3.75 to 2.5cm wave length; to be specific, it is 9 to 10 GHz in case of the radar under consideration).
The English abbreviation XBR stands for X-band radar. The radar has got 16,896 transmitting/receiving modules. The radome is 26 metres high.
The X-band radar uses a very accurately aimed beam to trace and follow the trajectory of the attacking missile.
The beam always aims upwards at an angle of at least 2° (minimum elevation angle). The radar peak power output is 200 kW, its effective practical coverage 2,058 km and theoretical coverage 4,000 to 6,700 km. The radar coverage of 2,058 kilometres means the distance of the remotest object the radar is able to detect – in case of an attacking missile warhead.
The type of radar under consideration is able to even detect objects at a longer distance on the conditions that one, these objects are “above the horizon” relative to the radar position (the Earth curvature applies), that is, high enough, and two, they would have to be considerably bigger than a ballistic missile warhead.
This radar is not a surveillance radar (which is always “on”, monitoring the given territory as aerodrome control radars, for example, do), but a discrimination radar. This means that it is only activated when early-warning satellites (sensors located in an Earth orbit) detect an attacking missile having been launched.
After detecting the launch of a missile and the initial direction finding (which will be a task for satellite infrared sensors and radar outposts), the radar located in the Czech Republic will continue to follow the missile, calculate precisely its ballistic curve, distinguish a warhead from decoys and pass all this data on to the control centre.
From there the information acquired by the radar will be passed on to an interceptor (an anti-missile missile) that will be launched with the aim of destroying the attacking missile. An interceptor base should be built in Poland.
The radar designed to be located in the Czech Republic after updating has been in operation for 10 years during anti-missile tests at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) base in the Kwajalein atoll on the Marshall Islands.