A missile is tentatively scheduled to be fired from the Kodiak Launch Complex between May 24 and May 27 to test an interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Detachment in Kodiak has announced safety water zones due to the upcoming launch.

However, Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency in Washington, D.C., said today, the dates could change since they are not set until a week before the launch.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Lee, Marine Safety Detachment supervisor, said his unit is meeting next week with KLC personnel to develop logistics for the safety areas.

The safety zones, in effect from 2 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. each day, include navigable waters in the vicinity of Narrow Cape and Ugak Island.

Lee said coordinates would be broadcast so that mariners are notified of the safety zones.

Unauthorized entry into or through a zone is prohibited and may result in civil or criminal penalties, including fines of up to $32,500.

Lee said there would also be a hazardous rocket impact area established at a point where the rocket stages are predicted to enter the ocean.

The first is centered approximately 90 miles southeast of Kodiak Island, with a time window of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. each day.

“Mariners are strongly advised to stay clear of this area,” Lee said.

The other two hazardous rocket impact areas are centered approximately 100 miles southwest of Dehlinger Seamount and 75 miles west of Erben Tablemount off the California coast.

Lehner said the upcoming launch has a “primary objective of striking the target missile.”

He said a Sept. 1, 2006, launch in which the Kodiak missile was hit did not have an intercept strike as its primary objective.

The upcoming Kodiak launch will be the 11th time a missile has been fired from KLC.

Lehner said the sea-based X-band radar (SBX), homeported in Adak, will shadow the missile test but will not be the sole-source radar.

The SBX, now cruising in the Pacific Ocean, will not be fully operational until the next launch tentatively set for fall.

The SBX can pinpoint a baseball ball 3,000 miles away with its high-frequency radar, making detailed, long-range imagery possible at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Radar systems at Beale Air Force Base in California are the primary radar tracking system for the launch.

Mirror writer Bryan Martin can be reached via e-mail at bmartin@kodiakdailymirror.com.