After returning to our apartment late yesterday evening, we saw two tugs alongside Pier 66 awaiting a Hapag Lloyd container vessel arriving in Elliott Bay. But out to the west, we could also see flashing lights (i.e., USCG patrol boats) escorting what appeared to be a very large, slow-moving vessel of indeterminate shape, so we turned on the VHF. There was lots of chatter between the ferry captains and the pilot of the mystery vessel, which the ferry captains referred to as “SBX-1.” From there, it was pretty easy to figure out what it was.
It was the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Sea-Based X-Band Radar vessel (SBX-1), creeping slowly across Elliott Bay and into Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island. According to a Missile Defense Agency fact sheet, the SBX-1 acquires, tracks and discriminates the flight characteristics of ballistic missiles. The vessel is based on an oil drilling platform design and is twin-hulled, self-propelled, and stable in high winds and turbulent sea conditions. It is 240 feet wide and 390 feet long. It towers more than 280 feet from its keel to the top of the radar dome and displaces nearly 50,000 tons.
The Seattle Times reports that Boeing has a $27 million contract for the upgrade and maintenance work to be performed at Vigor Shipyard, formerly Todd Pacific Shipyard in Seattle. See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015012804_apwaradarvessel.html.
The SBX-1 is on the far side of Elliott Bay from us this morning, tied up at the Harbor Island shipyard.
Just when you think Elliott Bay has nothing new to reveal . . .
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