The large white radome on the eastern shore of Vardøya — a sphere roughly fifteen metres in diameter mounted on a concrete building — is the GLOBUS II radar installation, operated by the Norwegian Intelligence Service. It was installed in the late 1990s and is officially described as a space surveillance radar tracking satellites and orbital debris. Russia has consistently contested this description, arguing it is primarily an early-warning radar facing Russian territory across the Barents Sea.
The installation is not open to visitors and sits behind a security fence, but it is visible from the road and from the water. For travellers interested in geopolitics, it is a vivid reminder that this small Arctic town occupies a genuinely strategic location: Russia's Kola Peninsula, with its submarine bases and nuclear facilities, is roughly 60 kilometres away across the water. A second GLOBUS III radar was under construction at the site in recent years.