Balkhash Radar Station
| Balkhash Radar Station | |
|---|---|
| Балхаш РЛС | |
| Sary Shagan, Kazakhstan | |
An image of the site from landsat. The Dnepr radar is a V bottom right and the Daryal radar bottom left.
|
|
Dnestr radars 1 and 2 taken by US spy satellite KH-7 in 1967. The town of Balkhash-9 is in the foreground.
|
|
 Balkhash Radar Station
|
|
| Coordinates | 46°36′11″N 74°31′52″E / 46.603076°N 74.530985°E |
| Type | Radar Station |
| Code | OS-2 |
| Site information | |
| Owner |
 Russia
|
| Controlled by |
 Russian Air Force VKS |
| Open to the public |
no |
| Condition | operational |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1964- |
| Built by |
 Soviet Union
|
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 46th Independent Radio-Technical Unit |
Balkhash Radar Station (also described as Sary Shagan radar node and Balkhash-9) is the site of two generations of Soviet and Russian early warning radars. It is located on the west coast of Lake Balkhash near Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. Although it is used for monitoring satellites in low Earth orbit it is mainly a key part of the Russian system of warning against missile attack. It provides coverage of western and central China, India, Pakistan and submarine missile launches in the Bay of Bengal. There have been six radars at this site, although only one is operational in 2012, and it is run by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.
The military town for the station is called Balkhash-9 (Russian: Балхаш-9). The station is 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east of the village of Gulshat in Karagandy Province and 90 kilometres (56 mi) north east of Priozersk, the main town for Sary Shagan.
Balkhash was founded as OS-2, a space surveillance site with four Dnestr (NATO codename "Hen House") radar stations, which were started in 1964 and tested in 1968. It could detect satellites at an altitude of up to 3,000 kilometres (1,864 mi). The prototype Dnestr radar, TsSO-P, was built nearby on the Sary Shagan test site 46°00′04.65″N 73°38′52.11″E / 46.0012917°N 73.6478083°E.
...
Wikipedia