A new compilation (large pdf) of official records, news releases and other documentation provides a fairly comprehensive account of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX), an ambitious missile defense program intended to track warheads in flight and to cue ground-based interceptor missiles.
The SBX, constructed aboard a modified semi-submersible oil platform, departed Hawaii last month and arrived this week in the waters near Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain, according to a February 7 release from the Missile Defense Agency.
Hundreds of pages of background material on the program were assembled by independent researcher Allen Thomson.
“The SBX story has been an interesting one, in my opinion, and I think it might become even more interesting when the history of NMD/GMD is written,” Mr. Thomson told Secrecy News. “Right now, I’m waiting to see if the second CS-50 platform nearing completion at Severodvinsk is going to be bought by Boeing for SBX-2.”
See “Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) Sourcebook” by Allen Thomson (19 MB PDF).
Related background is also available from the Congressional Research Service in “Sea-Based Ballistic Missile Defense — Background and Issues for Congress” (pdf), updated December 19, 2006.
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed revoking its 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases pose a substantial threat to the public. The Federation of American Scientists stands in strong opposition.
Modernizing ClinicalTrials.gov will empower patients, oncologists, and others to better understand what trials are available, where they are available, and their up-to-date eligibility criteria, using standardized search categories to make them more easily discoverable.
The Federation of American Scientists supports H.R. 4420, the Cool Corridors Act of 2025, which would reauthorize the Healthy Streets program through 2030 and seeks to increase green and other shade infrastructure in high-heat areas.
The current lack of public trust in AI risks inhibiting innovation and adoption of AI systems, meaning new methods will not be discovered and new benefits won’t be felt. A failure to uphold high standards in the technology we deploy will also place our nation at a strategic disadvantage compared to our competitors.