Pentagon Bulks Up Defenses in the Gulf

The Pentagon is building a missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar and organizing its biggest-ever minesweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf, as preparations accelerate for a possible flare-up with Iran, according to U.S. officials. The radar base in Qatar is slated to house a powerful X-Band radar, and supplement two similar arrays already in place in Israel and Turkey.
Together, the three radar sites will be able to detect missile launches from northern, western and southern Iran. Intelligence agencies believe Iran could have a ballistic missile as early as 2015 that could threaten the U.S. (Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes – Wall Street Journal)