Kürecik Radar Station ( tr, Kürecik Radar Üssü) is a military installation located in the town of in

Malatya Province Malatya Province ( tr, ; ku, Parezgêha Meletîyê) is a province of Turkey. It is part of a larger mountainous area. The capital of the province is Malatya. The area of Malatya province is 12,313 km². Malatya Province had a population of ...

, southeastern Turkey. It was established in 2012 for use by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

as an

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 t ...

against ballistic missile attacks.

Background

At the NATO Lisbon summit in November 2010, a strategic plan was concluded to establish a

ballistic missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...

system covering all alliance members. As a

member state, the

government of Turkey The Government of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Hükûmeti) is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the ...

approved the installation of an early-warning radar system on its territory, but insisted on a condition that all the information gathered at the radar station would be strictly for use by the NATO member states. After signing an agreement on final conditions in September 2011, officials from Turkey and the U.S. determined a site near the town of Kürecik in the

Akçadağ Akçadağ ( ku, Arxa) is a district of Malatya Province of Turkey. The mayor is Ali Kazgan. On 24 Jan 2020 the town was impacted by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake. Administration The District governor is Serdar Demirhan and the towns mayor is Ali Ka ...

district of Malatya Province as feasible. In the 1960s, the site hosted a radar base for surveillance of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

airspace. In the 1970s and early 1980s it was manned by a small US Air Force contingent and used as a communications relay site connecting Incirlik CDI with Diyarbakir and Erhaç air bases. Site security was provided by the Turkish military during those years as well. Kürecik is located west of

Malatya Malatya ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city ha ...

. The radar station is situated on the hill of Çat Tepe at an elevation of .

Controversy

The residents of Kürecik and many others from the region expressed their opposition and mounted protests right after the announcement of the radar site. In September 2011, Iran criticized Turkey for the establishment of the early-warning radar in

southeastern Turkey The Southeastern Anatolia Region ( tr, Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical region of Turkey. The most populous city in the region is Gaziantep. Other examples of big cities are Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır ...

, fearing it would serve to protect Israel from Iranian missile attacks in case of a war.

Installation and operation

The installation of the radar system was carried out by U.S. military personnel. The establishment of the radar station was completed in February 2012. The radar station's control was transferred to NATO command in the frame of the

European Phased Adaptive Approach The NATO missile defense system is a missile defense system being constructed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in several member states and around the Mediterranean Sea. Plans for this system have changed several times since firs ...

(EPAA). The installed radar is an Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance (

AN/TPY-2 The AN/TPY-2 Surveillance Transportable Radar, also called the Forward Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) is a long-range, very high-altitude active digital antenna array X band surveillance radar designed to add a tier to existing missile and a ...

), a Forward-Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) surveillance radar developed by

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems Raytheon Missiles & Defense (RMD) is one of four business segments of Raytheon Technologies. Headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, its president is Wes Kremer. The business produces a broad portfolio of advanced technologies, including air and missil ...

, featuring long-range, very high-altitude

active electronically scanned array An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled array antenna in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the an ...

. The radar site's command center is at Diyarbakır Air Base east of Kürecik. The Kürecik radar station's mission is to relay tracking and discrimination data to a remote missile defense system, the

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to shoot down short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal ...

(THAAD), stationed in Romania and Poland. Radar range data varies widely as the AN/TPY-2 is used both in forward-based and terminal-based modes. The Kürecik radar as a forward-based radar is deployed in a reasonable proximity to the assumed missile launch site. Kürecik's distance to the Iran-Turkey border is about . About 50 U.S. soldiers were deployed to the radar station for protection and internal security. The Turkish government did not allow foreign civilian technicians at the site for intelligence concerns. Turkey took the responsibility for the external protection of the radar site, which is situated in an isolated region, against sabotage attacks. A team of the

Engineer Research and Development Center The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) research and laboratory organization. The headquarters is located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the site of an antecedent organization, the Waterways Exper ...

's (ERDC)

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) is a United States Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center research facility headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire, that provides scientific and engineering ...

(CRREL) from the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

provided technical solutions for the military personnel stationed at the high-elevation Kürecik radar site, where harsh weather conditions occur in winter time. The early-warning radar is owned by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, and operated by the

U.S. Army Europe United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is an Army Service Component Command (ASCC) /Theater Army responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICO ...

References

{{Turkey–United States relations Military installations of the United States in Turkey NATO installations in Turkey Military installations established in 2012 2012 establishments in Turkey Military in Malatya Buildings and structures in Malatya Province Akçadağ

Background

Controversy

Installation and operation

See also

References