On Friday, 10 April 2026, Qatari television network Al Jazeera aired a report that for the first time showed damage to the AN/FPS-132 UEWR Block 5 early warning radar at Umm Dahal near Al Khor (about 95 km north of Al Udeid Air Base), sustained during the Iranian retaliatory strike of 28 February this year (Operation True Promise 4).
Photos: Al Jazeera
While the effectiveness of the strike had already been confirmed by Planet Labs satellite imagery from 3 March, only now has the extent of the damage been publicly shown up close. According to the footage, the installation, formally designated the Qatar Early Warning Radar (QEWR), was hit by a Shahed-series drone, as suggested at first glance by the location of the damage and fragmentation marks from the detonation. Officially, Qatar said that day it had managed to shoot down 65 Iranian ballistic missiles and 12 drones, with only one reportedly penetrating its defenses.
According to initial assessments, some panels of the radar’s northeastern antenna face were shattered or torn away, elements of the internal structure and cabling were destroyed, and damage is also visible to the supporting structure and technical rooms. Although the radar was not destroyed, its capabilities were reduced: its modern design, based on transmit-receive modules rather than a single antenna, theoretically allows for partial operation in the event of this kind of damage. It appears that the degradation of its early-warning capability may have increased Iran’s subsequent effectiveness during missile attacks in the region.
Confirmed the AN/FPS-132 phased array radar in Qatar was damaged by Iran, thanks to an incredible image from our friends @planet
Debris from the damaged face has fallen on the roof of the main building and there is water runoff from the firefighting effort pic.twitter.com/AxzteEug7P
— Sam Lair (@sam_lair) March 3, 2026
At the heart of the installation is the U.S.-made AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar, Block 5 ballistic-missile detection radar. Qatar was cleared to purchase it in July 2013, in a deal then estimated at up to 1.1 billion USD. The installation was built by Raytheon, now part of RTX.
It is a UHF-band radar with an instrumented range of about 5,000 km (around 3,000 miles), capable of detecting and tracking ballistic-missile launches and flight paths, as well as space objects such as satellites. It provides 360-degree azimuth coverage through three fixed triangular antenna faces, each covering a 120-degree sector. The installation is about 40 m high, with part of the structure also located underground.
Its role is to provide initial tracking data on hostile ballistic missiles for missile-defense systems such as THAAD and Patriot, both for the Qatari Armed Forces and for U.S. forces in the region.
It is one of the most powerful radars of its kind in the world. Only a handful of AN/FPS-132 UEWR systems exist, including those at the U.S. air bases at Beale, Clear, and Cape Cod, as well as at RAF Fylingdales in the United Kingdom and Pituffik in Greenland. The Block 5 version ordered by Qatar includes, among other things, upgraded transmit/receive (T/R) modules, signal processors, software, and interfaces for data exchange with other missile-defense systems.
The system is operated by the Qatar Emiri Air Force in formal terms, although in practice it is supported by U.S. personnel. The radar itself is often referred to as the Qatar Early Warning Radar (QEWR).
📸 Al Jazeera shows heavily damaged AN/FPS-132 early warning radar at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, a key U.S. ballistic-missile detection system.
The AN/FPS-132 early-warning radar at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is a $1.1 billion U.S.-built missile-warning system that detects… pic.twitter.com/RcmvQff2Is
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 10, 2026
Photos published by Al Jazeera for the first time reveal damage caused by Iranian strikes on the U.S.-made AN/FPS-132 Block 5 (SSPARS) ballistic missile early warning radar in Qatar.
The damage appears to be more extensive than what is visible in satellite imagery. https://t.co/wQvJh8Eldk pic.twitter.com/tfuxzIna7J
— Egypt’s Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT) April 10, 2026
See also: