Radar RFI Issued

The Missile Defense Agency today issued a request for information on its new midcourse tracking radar.

The Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) "will provide persistent sensor coverage and improve discrimination capabilities against threats to the homeland from the Pacific theater," according to MDA's fiscal year 2015 budget justification book issued earlier this week. "This new radar also will give the Sea-Based X-band (SBX) radar more geographic deployment flexibility for contingency and test use."

MDA is asking Congress for $79.5 million to begin developing the radar.

As for where the new radar would be based, the RFI states:

The first deployment of the LRDR will be operational in Alaska no later than 2020 with the intent to address threats to the homeland from the Pacific region. The Respondents may assume Clear Air Force Station as a point of reference; however a final location has not been determined and will not be designated until a siting study and environmental analysis is completed.

MDA Director Vice Adm. James Syring said during a March 4 briefing that "we've talked about Alaska, but we're going . . . to do the due diligence and evaluate all the possible alternatives in the Pacific."