Qəbələ radar station
Coordinates: 40 ° 52 ′ 14.6 ″ N , 47 ° 48 ′ 9.6 ″ E
The Qəbələ radar station (pronounced as Gäbälä ) is a radar station in Azerbaijan . It is located near the city of Qəbələ in the Rajon of the same name in the Greater Caucasus , 220 kilometers northwest of Baku .
The station was built in 1985 as part of the Soviet early warning system. Russia leased it from Azerbaijan for US $ 7 million until 2012 . After that, their task will be taken over by a new radar station to be built in the northern Caucasus. Russian President Vladimir Putin brought them up for discussion at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007 as part of a joint missile defense project in Azerbaijan ( see National Missile Defense ).
The Qəbələ radar station monitors the movements of satellites and rockets within a radius of 6000 kilometers. According to the then Russian Defense Minister Sergei Borissowitsch Ivanov 2006, this includes the skies over Iran , Turkey , China , Pakistan , India , Iraq and large parts of Africa .
The station is 40 kilometers south of the border with Russia and around 150 kilometers north of the border with Iran. Its operation is controversial in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Environment considers the radiation it emits to be a health risk.
Web links
- Background: The radar station in Azerbaijan ( memento from May 28, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ). N-TV, June 7, 2007