The U.S. government has deployed its only maritime early warning radar station off the eastern coast of North Korea in international waters to keep tabs on that country's aggressive missile testing program.

This move, however, will certainly draw protests from China and Russia since the more powerful radar on this floating radar platform can "see" farther into these countries than the radar system of the U.S. Theater High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD), whose deployment in South Korea by 2017 has irritated both U.S. foes no end.

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It might also provoke North Korea into attacking this ship.

The ungainly-looking radar station called the SBX-1 set sail from its base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in October and is now monitoring North Korean missile tests from an undisclosed location protected by an undetermined number of U.S. Navy ships.

The protection is vital since there remains the likelihood the unpredictable North Koreans might attempt to seize this spy ship. The North Koreans did just that on Jan. 23, 1968 when the Korean People's Navy boarded and captured the U.S. Navy spy ship, USS Pueblo (AGER-2), operating in international waters off its east coast.

SBX-1 carries the "Sea-Based X-Band Radar" (SBX), the world's largest X-band radar system. The huge radome shrouding this powerful X-band radar looks like a white golf ball atop a square tee.

The mission of the twin-hulled SBX-1 and its radar is to protect the United States and its allies by guiding land-based anti-missile missiles fired from Alaska and California, as well as those fired from in-theatre (in this case, South Korea).

SBX-1 was developed by Boeing as part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) component of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). GMD intercepts incoming warheads.

Derived from the radar of the Aegis combat system, SBX stands 31 meters tall and is 37 meters in diameter. The radome weighs 8,100 kg.

The radar is the most powerful of its kind on the planet. It's so powerful it can track an object the size of a baseball over San Francisco, California from Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, a distance of 4,700 km, said Lt. Gen Trey Obering, former Director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

MDA is responsible for developing a layered defense against ballistic missiles.

The radar used by a THAAD battery is the X-band AN/TPY-2 with a range anywhere from 1,500 km to 3,000 km depending on the configuration used. The SBX can detect targets beyond 5,000 km.

SBX-1, which was deployed in 2006, is the first in a class of maritime radar platforms. There has been no word on when other ships in this class will be built. 

TagsSBX-1, Sea-Based X-Band Radar, U.S. Navy, United States, North Korea, china, Russia, USS Pueblo, Ground-based Midcourse Defense