Russia builds giant radar near NATO border

Russia is building a huge radar station in its Kaliningrad exclave, on NATO’s eastern flank, that can track missiles, warships and aircraft at more than 3,000km, covering most of Europe

NATO
BELARUS
LITHUANIA
LATVIA
ESTONIA
FINLAND
SWEDEN
POLAND
UKRAINE
RUSSIA
KALININGRAD
Baltic sea
125 miles
200km

Gvardeysk: Suspected over-the-horizon (OTH) radar complex, 37km from Polish border

Gvardeysk facility: Likely built to modern Russian Konteiner (29B6) design

Facility layout on location

Antenna arrays

Three antenna arrays, each over 500m long, arranged in star shape

200m
650ft

HOW DOES OTH RADAR WORK?

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2
3
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2
3

Transmitter station: Sends high-frequency (HF) radio waves upwards towards ionosphere

Ionosphere: Refracts waves back to Earth, bypassing curvature of Earth

Target: When waves hit large enough metal surface, some energy is reflected back towards receiver

Range: 1,000-3,000km from array60-80km

Receiver
Transmitter
Fighter jets
Missiles
Ships

IONOSPHERE

Sources: Frankfurter Allgemeine, U.S. Space Force
Pictures Google Earth, Earth 3D
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