‘Golf ball’ back after 2 months at sea

The Missile Defense Agency’s 280-foot-tall Sea-Based X-Band Radar returned to Ford Island on Monday after being at sea during North Korea’s failed April 13 rocket test.

Asked if the radar ship monitored the launch, agency spokeswoman Pam Rogers said, “We can’t discuss the nature of the SBX’s operations.”

The radar, which has the appearance of a giant golf ball on a six-legged platform, sailed out of Pearl Harbor March 23, about three weeks ahead of the North Korea test.

Rogers said the SBX is back in Hawaii to complete a change of contractors for some support functions and to reduce overall operating costs.

The Missile Defense Agency said in mid-March when the radar arrived that it was also then going to make a change in contractors.

The one-of-a-kind, $1 billion SBX, part of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system, is a combination of an advanced X-band radar mounted on a mobile, oceangoing, semi-submersible platform.

The agency said in February that it planned to sideline the missile tracker by placing it “in a limited test and contingency operations status” to save $500 million over five years.

The change was detailed as part of the Defense Department’s budget request for 2013, which set out $487 billion in cuts over the next 10 years.

It remains unclear where the agency will keep the missile-tracking platform. Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island has become its unofficial home port.

“The SBX will enter limited test support status in 2013,” Rogers said. Its long-term location is still under consideration, she said.

North Korea reportedly is digging a tunnel for what could be a third attempted nuclear test, drawing another round of warnings from the United States.

“It is very important that North Korea not miscalculate again and engage in any future provocations,” Glyn Davies, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy, said Monday in Seoul. “And that is the main message that we are conveying to North Korea. We are united in our resolve to respond, not just the (U.S., South Korea and Japan), but Russia and China as well, if there are additional provocations.”