NAGY-TUBES, Hungary, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- In a move certain to discomfit Russia, Hungary, a member of NATO since 1999, will host a NATO radar complex on Nagy-Tubes hill near Pecs.
The installation is part of NATO's early warning defense system, and will be the third NATO early-warning radar installation in Hungary.
The facility was originally slated for Zengo, the highest peak of the Mecsek Mountains in southern Hungary, but the proposed site has for the last few years generated controversy between environmental activists, local inhabitants and the government as it was situated in a nature preserve.
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz and Environmental Minister Miklos Persanyi all agreed that the Nagy-Tubes hill would be preferable to Zengo as the site contains a pre-existing radar tower, which is only a few feet lower than Zengo, the Budapest Sun reported.
Last year Hungarian and international environmental protection groups appealed to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer not to construct the station at Zengo.
The Ministry of the Environment asserted that with the Nagy-Tubes site "flying objects can be located better and there won't be any environmental damage, as the military establishment is not a nature reserve."
Greenpeace Hungary campaign manager Roland Csaki said, "Out of all the bad solutions from an environmental point of view, this is definitely the best one; however, it will only be acceptable if the radar is built within the already existing military station, and if consent is given by the locals."
