AZERBAIJAN: Russia unveils its top-secret Qabala radar system to foreign reporters a day ahead of President Vladimir Putin's meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in Maine

Record ID: 218077

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: Russia unveils its top-secret Qabala radar system to foreign reporters a day ahead of President Vladimir Putin's meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in Maine
  • Date: 1st July 2007
  • Summary: INTERIOR OF RADAR SYSTEM VARIOUS OF RUSSIAN MILITARY OPERATORS WORKING WITH RADAR SYSTEM VARIOUS OF PARTS OF RADAR IN ACTION VARIOUS OF RADAR SYSTEM INTERIOR
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVABB197OGXZNJC24EP38GFBHZB2
  • Story Text: Russia says it is ready to upgrade its anti-missile radar in Azerbaijan and unveils its top-secret system a day before Putin meets U.S President George W. Bush for talks that are expected to focus on Moscow's surprise offer to share the missile defence system located in the ex-Soviet country.
    Russia is primed to upgrade its anti-missile radar in Azerbaijan as part of a joint security measure with the United States proposed by President Vladimir Putin, an army official said on Saturday.
    Russia unveiled its top-secret radar system to foreign reporters a day before Putin meets U.S President George W. Bush for talks that are expected to focus on Moscow's surprise offer to share the missile defence system in the ex-Soviet country.
    "The (radar) station can control, first of all, the intercontinental ballistic missiles, and at the same time it can control middle range missile and Scud. And this was proved during the Iran - Iraqi conflict, when this station detected about 150 launches of Scud missiles. And we also worked in January 2007 on Iranian missile "Shihab-3 " detection. We have transmitted all necessary information for making correct decision to our high command posts," said Major-General Alexander Yakushin, first deputy head of Russia's spaces forces headquarters.
    "If the relevant political decision is being taken the (radar) station will be modernised for improvement of its detection performance," he told the first foreign reporters to visit the 22-year-old station, where huge Soviet-era computers process data from the radar.
    Qabala, among the world's biggest radars, has a 6,000 km (3,750 mile) range and scans the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and most of North Africa. The 120-metre high installation is surrounded by electrified barbed wire and concrete bunkers.
    Putin has offered the United States use of the radar, commissioned in 1985, as an alternative to Washington's plans to install a missile defence system in eastern Europe.
    The two presidents will meet at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Sunday and Monday.
    The Kremlin rejects U.S. assertions the eastern European missile shield is intended to avert possible attacks from countries such as Iran. It views a Czech radar and missiles to be deployed in Poland as a threat to its security.
    Azerbaijan, once part of the Soviet Union, has close ties with Moscow and has also been quick to attract Western investors keen to cash in on the country's booming oil industry.
    Qabala, made of reinforced concrete, stands on a hill overlooking orchards 230 km (144 miles) northwest of the country's capital, Baku. It employs 1,000 servicemen and runs on enough electricity to power a small town.
    "We are ready, using this superstructure, to detect a rocket launch, the country where the launch took place and the point where the rocket will land," Yakushin said, standing on the roof of the radar station, only 200 km (125 miles) from Iran. He said the radar detected the launch of 150 Scud missiles during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
    Inside the station's dimly lit command centre, three army officers manned old-fashioned telephones and printers rattled out reams of data.
    Asked what advantages the United States could expect from using the radar, Yakushin replied: "Due to its specific design, the station can detect not only intercontinental ballistic missiles, but also traditional missiles with smaller ranges.
    From his point of view, the station has no technical drawbacks, but he added: "We are military personal, we will have no organisational or technical problems in implementing decisions, if such decisions are taken."
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