Gabala Radar Station

Daryal radar overview

The Daryal-type radar is a bistatic phased-array early warning radar. It consists of two separate large phased-array antennas separated by around 500 metres (1,640 ft) to 1.5 kilometres (4,921 ft). The transmitter array is 30 by 40 metres (98 ft × 131 ft) and the receiver is 80 by 80 metres (260 ft × 260 ft) in size. The system is a VHF system operating at a wavelength of 1.5 to 2 meters (150 to 200 MHz). Its initial transmit capacity was 50 MW with a target capacity of 350 MW.

Originally, at least seven Daryal facilities were planned, however, only the first two facilities completed, Pechora and Gabala, were ever operational. Two Daryal-U type were to be built at sites in Balkhash and Mishelevka, Irkutsk, neither were completed. The US Clinton administration offered financial assistance in completing the Mishelevka facility in exchange for amending the ABM treaty to allow US deployment of a national missile defense system. Russia rejected this proposal and in 2002 the US unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty. Two Daryal-UM systems were to be constructed in Skrunda, Latvia and Mukachevo, Ukraine. The Mukachevo in the Ukraine was never completed after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Skrunda facility was turned over to Latvia to be demolished. The Yeniseysk (Krasnoyarsk) Daryal-U site caused concern in the west over compliance with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty during its construction in the 1980s. Following years of negotiations, in September 1989 the Soviets admitted it was a violation of the treaty, construction ceased and the facility was eventually dismantled.

Strategic Importance of Gabala

During the 33rd G8 summit in Germany on June 7–8, 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin made an offer to deploy elements of an American anti-ballistic missile system in Azerbaijan, instead of Poland (see US missile defense complex in Poland) and the Czech Republic, using the Gabala Radar Station jointly with Russia. This offer came after the debate about the U.S. plan to deploy anti-ballistic missile system components in Eastern Europe to defend against possible ballistic missile attacks from Iran and North Korea. The plan met with sharp criticism by Russia which threatened to target Europe with its own ballistic missiles despite US claims that the system was not designed to defend against a large scale Russian attack. The Gabala radar is used as a sensor for the A-135 ABM system which Russia has operated in Europe, near Moscow, since the 1970s.

In the beginning of July 2007 the US announced that the Gabala installation was not an acceptable substitute for the Poland and Czech Republic sites. In July 2007 at a Kennebunkport summit Russia offered data from Armavir too. Russia says that Gabala identified 150 launches of scud missiles during the Iran-Iraq war and has been watching Iranian missile launches. Data from Gabala, together with Armavir, was offered to the United States as they provide good coverage of any potential launches from Iran.

Environmental concerns

There were reports about environmental damage from the activity of Gabala Radar Station which sparked some public debate in Azerbaijan. Similar health concerns were raised about American PAVE PAWS phased array radars, but as of 2005 available data did not support those concerns. Surveys undertaken by the Radiation Problems Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources have not found anything abnormal.

Some sources say that the station occupies about 210 hectares (519 acres), however the Russian military say 190 acres (77 ha). Opponents of the station say that another 400 hectares of forest were cut down while laying transmission lines to service the station and that the underground water level has fallen sharply after 16 boreholes were drilled to supply water to the station's cooling system. Every hour of cooling station requires about 300-400 cubic meters of water, after which the water without any treatment is discharged into a river. Because of falling groundwater surrounding forests are dying. Many species of fish in the river disappeared. The local population continues to use water from the river

The newspaper Baku Zerkalo reports that in 1984, when the power was 300 MW, of one hectare of land was completely burnt out. In other instances of sources of ignition for trees on the radiation meter range is not described, such fires do not occur when operating a similar radar in Pechora and comparable to the power of the Don-2N radar station in the Moscow suburbs.