Ukrainiana

Chernobyl’s Silent Neighbor, the Steel Yard

Not far from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, one can locate two cage-like walls of wires, 150 m high (492 ft) and 800 m long (2,625 ft).

Meet the Duga-3, aka the Steel Yard, the now-defunct over-the-horizon early warning radar system.

The Duga family, part of the Soviet ABM early warning network, caused a nasty "rat-tat-tat" sound on shortwave radio frequencies worldwide from 1976 to 1989, thus earning it the nickname “Russian Woodpecker.”













Pretty impressive, isn’t it? Click here and here for GoogleMaps.

The Duga-3, completed in 1985, was deactivated soon after the Chernobyl disaster. As of today, Ukraine operates two other ABM early warning radars in Sevastopol and Mukachevo.

Sources:
http://nevsedoma.com.ua/index.php?newsid=32134
http://pripyat.com