Balkhash / Balqash
Balkhash Radar Station is the site of two generations of Soviet and Russian early warning radars. It is located on the west coast of Lake Balkhash near Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. There have been six radars at this site, although only one was operational by 2012, run by theRussian Aerospace Defence Forces. While the main fuction was satellite detection, the fifth radar's function was early warning against missile attack. The military town for the station is called Balkhash-9. The station is east of the village of Gulshat in Karagandy Province.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin supported the proposal to denounce the agreement with Kazakhstan on the use of the Balkhash radar site in the Russian Missile Attack Warning System. On 22 June 2020, RIA Novosti the relevant resolution was published on the official portal of legal information. "To approve the proposal to denounce the agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the conditions of transfer and on the procedure for further use of the Kazakhstan Balkhash junction in the Russian Missile Attack Warning System, signed in Moscow on December 2, 2014,” the document said.
Russia has commissioned a new Voronezh-M radar station near Orsk, which replaced the station in Kazakhstan. Complexes such as "Voronezh" - one of the most powerful radar. Indexes indicate the wavelength at which they operate: M - meter range, DM - decimeter, CM - centimeter.
On 24 July 2020 the Federation Council approved at a plenary session on Friday a law on denunciation of the agreement with Kazakhstan on the terms of the transfer and on the procedure for further use of the Kazakh Balkhash node in the Russian missile attack warning system (EWS). The node was commissioned in 1973 and "is on alert in the southern strategic aerospace direction," according to the accompanying documents to the law. They also note that the Russian Ministry of Defense in this area from 2014 to 2018 took into operation four modern radar stations of the Voronezh type in Armavir, Orsk, Barnaul and Irkutsk. In this regard, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to abandon the use of the Balkhash node by the Russian Federation. The property of the Russian Federation will be removed to its territory until the end of the agreement.
The Balkhash node is an element of the Russian missile attack warning system, located in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan and is designed to conduct continuous reconnaissance of outer space in its zone of operation, automatically detect and track ballistic missiles and space objects, as well as determine the parameters of their movement and issue information to the command posts of the early warning system.
The agreement was signed on December 2, 2014 in Moscow and ratified on November 28, 2015. It implies the use by Russia of movable and immovable property of the Balkhash node. The real estate includes technological and support facilities designed to solve problems in the Russian missile attack warning system. The head of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, called the denunciation "an absolutely normal situation" in line with the agreement, and stressed that this procedure is not a sign of any disagreements between Russia and Kazakhstan.
HEN HOUSE
Five!! Count them!! Five HEN HOUSE radars [two faces apiece!!] More HEN HOUSEs than Frank Perdue ever dreamed of!! Balkhash was founded as OS-2, a space surveillance site with four Dnestr (NATO codename "Hen House") radar stations, which were started in 1964 and tested in 1968. In 1967-8 a Dnepr early warning radar was started adjacent to the 4 Dnestr radars and it was commissioned in the early 1970s. The Dnepr radar is the only functioning radar on the site as of 2012.
Daryal-U radar
The Daryal-U radar between the towns of Balkhash and Priozersk in Kazakhstan has been under construction since 1984. After the collapse of the USSR, the radar station, which was in a high degree of readiness, was plundered and burned, and the building of antennas was gradually disassembled by the local population.
Lake Balkhash
The sixteenth largest inland lake in the world, Lake Balkhash, covers an area of 7115 square miles (18428 square km). The brown and tan colors dominating the surrounding landscape indicate the harsh, waterless conditions of this environment. According to most accounts, the lake is slowly shrinking because of evaporation. The small cities of Sary-Shagan and Balkhash are located along the western and northern shorelines, respectively.
Lake Balkhash is 376 miles (605 km) long and has a maximum width of 45 miles (70 km). To the north of Lake Balkhash are the southern portions of the semi-arid Kazakh Uplands. To the south of Lake Balkhash is the Saryesik-Atryan Desert, mostly a sand desert. The average depth of the lake is 20 feet (6 meters) though its maximum depth reaches 87 feet (26 meters). Three major streams feed Lake Balkhash, all from the south or southeast -- the Ili River, with a large delta, the Karatal River, with a smaller delta, and the Aqsu River. Lake Balkhash has no outlet.
A sandbar effectively divides Lake Balkhash into a western half, which is fresh water [especially near the Ili River mouth], and an eastern half, which is saline. Since 1960, water levels in Lake Balkhash have been declining, mostly due to evaporation and increased water usage for irrigation along the Ili and Karatol Rivers. The Ili River does not have sufficient waterflow to exceed the rate of evaporation.
Lake Balkhash is usually frozen from November through March; however, even in April ice still covers almost the entire surface of the lake. The white, highly reflective areas south of the lake are mineral deposits, mainly salts. Much of the landscape around the lake consists of sand; actually, areas of low sand dunes exist.
The closed Lake Balkhash is situated in a land depression of tectonic origin. The orography of its drainage basin is very complex: there are high mountain systems, low mountains, plains, and sands partly bordering the lake. The area and water volume of the lake vary considerably in due course depending on the large amplitude of long-term and secular fluctuations of its water level. The water resources of the lake and its tributary rivers are used for irrigation, municipal and industrial water supply (including the supply for the Balkhash Copper Melting Plant). The fish catch in the lake is also very important for the Kazakhstan.
Water in the western part of the lake is almost fresh—suitable for drinking and industrial uses—whereas the eastern side of the basin is brackish to salty. The western side is also murkier; visibility/light penetrates to about 1 meter, compared to more than 5 meters on the eastern side. This murkiness, and the water’s milky, yellow-green color, is likely due to sediments suspended in the water. “The lake is very shallow, and it is windy nearly every day, so waves can stir up sediments from the bottom. Anywhere between 70 to 80 percent of the lake’s water comes from the Ili River, which enters the lake along the eastern shoreline. The surrounding delta (green) is now one of the largest wetlands in Central Asia
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