Gabala Radar Station

Gabala Radar Station (Russian: Габалинская РЛС, tr. Gabalinskaya RLS; Azerbaijani: Qəbələ RLS) was a Daryal-type (NATO Pechora) bistatic Passive electronically scanned array early warning radar, built by the Soviet Union in the Qabala district of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1985. It was operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces and closed at the end of 2012. The radar station had a range of up to 6,000 kilometres (3,728 mi), and was designed to detect missile launches as far as the Indian Ocean. The radar's surveillance covered Iran, Turkey, India, Iraq and the entire Middle East. It could detect the launch of missiles and track the whole trajectory to enable a ballistic missile defense system to intercept an offensive strike. The Radar Station hosted about 1,000 Russian servicemen with about 500 Azerbaijanis.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan negotiated the terms of the lease and in 2002 the two countries signed an agreement according to which Russia leased the station from Azerbaijan until 24 December 2012 for $7 million per year rent, $5 million per year for electricity and $10 million per year for other services.

In 2012 the future of the station was being negotiated between Russia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan and Armenia have ongoing tension and Russia and Armenia are close. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are members of the CIS but only Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Russia has a new Voronezh radar in Armavir which covers the same region as Gabala. Russia offered to modernise the station and Azerbaijan wanted to increase the rent Russia paid.

In December 2012, Russia announced that negotiations had been unsuccessful and that they had stopped using the radar station. The station was given back to Azerbaijan and all the equipment dismantled and transported to Russia.