Giant radar revisits Islands

Published: May 01, 2006
Source: www.honoluluadvertiser.com



Seeping seawater has forced the U.S. military's most powerful missile defense radar to abort a voyage from Hawaii to Alaska, delaying the $815 million device's arrival at its home port.

The giant, white bulbous radar dome — looking like a King Kong-sized golf ball — returned to Pearl Harbor mounted on its converted floating oil drilling platform four days after leaving O'ahu on March 31.

"It made more sense to come back into Pearl Harbor to do the repairs than to try to do them out on the open water," said Pam Rogers, a spokeswoman for the Missile Defense Agency.

"It was close enough to Pearl that they could return fairly easily."

Repairs won't be completed until this week at the earliest, Rogers said.continue..