It is located on the west coast of Lake Balkhash near Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan.

Although it was used for monitoring satellites in low Earth orbit it was mainly a key part of the Russian system of warning against missile attack.

It provided coverage of western and central China, India, Pakistan and submarine missile launches in the Bay of Bengal.

Balkhash was founded as OS-2, a space surveillance site with four Dnestr (NATO codename "Hen House") radar stations, which were started in 1964 [1] and tested in 1968.

[3][4] The prototype Dnestr radar, TsSO-P, was built nearby on the Sary Shagan test site 46°00′04.65″N 73°38′52.11″E / 46.0012917°N 73.6478083°E / 46.0012917; 73.6478083.