Pentagon building secret missile-defense radar station in Qatar

The Pentagon is building a missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, and is organizing its largest-ever mine sweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf as preparations accelerate for a possible eruption of hostilities with Iran, according to U.S. officials.

The sophisticated radar site will complete the backbone of a system designed to defend U.S. interests and allies such as Israel and European nations against Iranian rockets, officials told The Wall Street Journal. The mine sweeping exercises, to be held in September, will be the first such multilateral drills in the region.

The moves are intended to address the two Iranian offensive capabilities Pentagon planners are most concerned about: Tehran's ballistic missile arsenal and its threat to shut down the crucial oil-shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the measures reflect the Pentagon's concern that tensions with Iran could intensify as the full force of sanctions targeting the country's oil exports takes hold this summer.

Though U.S. officials described both the radar site and the naval exercises as defensive in nature, the deployments are likely to be seen by Iran as acts of provocation.

The moves could also help the U.S. reassure Israel and other anxious allies that the Pentagon is taking steps to counter Iran after months of seemingly fruitless negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.

The rising tensions in the Persian Gulf were apparent Monday when the USNS Rappahannock, a Navy refueling ship with a mostly civilian crew, fired on a small boat in the waters off the United Arab Emirates, killing one fisherman, according to a U.A.E. official.

The Pentagon, according to analysts speaking to The Wall Street Journal, chose to place the new radar site in Qatar because it is home to the largest U.S. military air base in the region. More than 8,000 troops are stationed there and at another U.S. base in Qatar.

Qatari officials in Washington and Doha didn't respond to requests by The Wall Street Journal for comment.

The new radar base is slated to house the powerful AN/TPY-2 radar system, also known as the X-Band radar, and supplement two similar arrays already in place in Israel's Negev Desert and in central Turkey, officials told The Wall Street Journal. Together, the three radar sites form an arc that U.S. officials say can detect missile launches from northern, western and southern Iran.

The X-Band will allow allied militaries to track missiles launched from deep inside Iran, which has an arsenal of missiles capable of reaching Israel and parts of Europe. Intelligence agencies have speculated that Iran could have a ballistic missile as early as 2015 that could threaten the U.S.

The radar installations in turn are being linked to missile-interceptor batteries throughout the region and to U.S. ships with high-altitude interceptor rockets, according to The Wall Street Journal. The X-Band radar provides images that can be used to pinpoint rockets in flight.

Officials told The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. military's Central Command, which is in charge of the buildup to counter Iran, also wants to deploy the army's first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile-interceptor system, known as a THAAD, to the region in the coming months, possibly in the United Arab Emirates.

The THAAD has its own radar, so deploying it separately from the X-Bands provides even more coverage and increases the system's accuracy, officials told The Wall Street Journal. The X-Band radar and the THAAD will provide an "extra layer of defense," supplementing Patriot batteries that are used to counter lower-altitude rockets, said Riki Ellison, chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, which supports developing and deploying the systems.

"There's an effort to get it up and running as soon as possible," a senior U.S. defense official told The Wall Street Journal, "but it's not like there's some rush to be ready for imminent conflict."

Construction of the radar base was due to be completed this month in a remote area, according to Pentagon documents revealed by The Wall Street Journal. Officials said the location of the new site in Qatar was being kept secret because of the sensitivity surrounding any U.S. military deployments in the emirate.

The Pentagon has told congressional committees that constructing a pad for the radar, roads, barracks and installing security measures at the site will cost $12.2 million.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has doubled the number of minesweepers in the region to eight vessels, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A senior military official said the mine sweeping exercise shouldn't be seen as provocative.

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