Sea-Based X-Band Radar Dedicated (Photo courtesy of Boeing)
According to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), an arm of the Defense Department, the SBX vessel will be based in Adak, Alaska. However, the SBX will be able to deploy to other locations under its own power. When used in conjunction with other missile-defense technologies (satellites , radars , lasers , and missiles ), the SBX is designed to defend all 50 States from a ballistic missile attack. The SBX will be used to support both operations and testing of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which is specifically designed to provide a defense of our homeland against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack. According to a report at MissileThreat.com , Major General John Holly � former head of the GMD program for the Missile Defense Agency � commented in remarks to Alaska lawmakers that the SBX can defend against missile attacks out of Northeast Asia. That would include North Korea and rogue elements at missile sites in Siberia.