Balkhash Radar Station (also described as Sary Shagan radar node and Balkhash-9) is the site of two generations of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

early warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum tim ...

s. It is located on the west coast of Lake Balkhash near Sary Shagan test site in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Although it was used for monitoring satellites in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

it was mainly a key part of the Russian system of warning against missile attack. It provided coverage of western and central China, India, Pakistan and submarine missile launches in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

. There have been six radars at this site, the last one was removed from service on 1 June 2020, and it was run by the Russian Space Forces. The

military townlet In military of Russia and some other post-Soviet states (as well as in the former Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, ...

for the station is called Balkhash-9 (). The station is east of the village of Gulshat in Karagandy Province and north east of Priozersk, the main town for Sary Shagan.

Space surveillance

Balkhash was founded as OS-2, a space surveillance site with four Dnestr ( NATO codename "Hen House") radar stations, which were started in 1964 and tested in 1968. It could detect satellites at an altitude of up to . The prototype Dnestr radar, TsSO-P, was built nearby on the Sary Shagan test site . In 1967-8 a Dnepr early warning radar was started adjacent to the 4 Dnestr radars and it was commissioned in the early 1970s. The Dnepr radar was the last functioning radar on the site.

Second generation Daryal radar

Balkhash had a Daryal-U radar (NATO codename "Pechora"), a bistatic

phased-array In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving th ...

consisting of two separate large phased-array antennas apart. The transmitter array was and the receiver was in size. The system is a VHF system operating at a

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

of 1.5 to 2 meters (150 to 200 MHz). The claimed range of a Daryal installation is . Originally, at least seven Daryal facilities were planned, however, only the first two facilities completed,

Pechora Pechora (; ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Komi Republic, Russia, located on the Pechora (river), Pechora River, west of and near the northern Ural Mountains. The area of the town is . Population: History Pechor ...

and Gabala, were ever operational. Two Daryal-U type were to be built at Balkhash and Mishelevka,

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, neither were completed before the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The Balkhash Daryal started in 1982. Some testing started in 1991 and then stopped in 1994. In 2002 the never operational radar transferred to Kazakhstan who were left with the responsibility to demolish it. The radar was heavily looted and the receiver building ("building no. 2") burnt down in September 2004. It further collapsed whilst being looted in January 2010, killing one. The Daryal contained organic pollutant

polychlorinated biphenyl Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organochlorine compounds with the formula Carbon, C12Hydrogen, H10−''x''Chloride, Cl''x''; they were once widely used in the manufacture of carbonless copy paper, as heat transfer fluids, and as dielectri ...

in its capacitors. The Kazakh government allocated $7 million to dispose of these and former Kazakh environment minister Nurlan Iskakov was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to four years in prison relating to this money in 2009.

References

External links

Set of photos from inside the Balkhash Dnepr from Novosti Kosmonavtiki

{{coord, 46.603076, 74.530985, type:landmark_region:, display=title Soviet military radars Military installations of Russia in other countries Karaganda Region Buildings and structures in Karaganda Region