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authorities have confirmed that TACSAT
support is no longer re Kired, they need
have no further invo 9 vement in thc
manoeuvre se uence. At this sta ’z
eiecution an1 monitoring of t g :
TACSAT disposal could be turned over
to a central Control Centre.
&)a 4a Coalectiow
Modem spaceborne imagers produce very
wide bandwidth data rates which qbickly
saturate available spaceborne storage
devices. Hence direct-to-Theatre
downlinking is very attractk: for small
TACSAT missions where data timeliness
is of the essence. These dbwnlinks must,
for obvious reasons, b,e encrypted.
Because of the very high burst rates,
spread spectrum downlink jamming
rotcction is not practicdble; the on1
F easible rotcction methods are Doiinlin
User Xrrninal (DUT) location and
minimisation of DUT antenna sidelobes.
Some on-board storage buffers would
allow greater flexibilitv in the deplo inent,
and reduce the numbers, of in- -ay
heatre
DUTs. These DUTs must be connected
by telecommunications links of various
kinds to End Users. On-board
preprocessing can be used to reduce the
downlink bandwidth and reduce the
complexity of the in-Theatre image
processinf Sfunctions. However, some
on-groun rocessing, including fusion
with other ata sets, will be an essential
element of the image assessment chain.
In the reverse direction, the flow of
information from the End Users €or target
selection must conver e on at least one
Telecommand Uplink B acility. Instrument
settling times dictate that, for efficient use
during each perigee, these telecomrnands
must be uplinked out-of-Theatre during
apogee.
Simulation
From the above discussion it is clear that
deployment of a TACSAT system is a
complex undertaking requiring
well-trained operators and well-briefed
operations stxff. AlthouFh the classic
military process of reducing complcxity
down to the minimum number of
l
6-5
adequate operations and planning tools.
Both must depend on comprehensive
mission simulations for the Launch
Preparation and TACSAT Operations
Phases.
Conclusion
Clasically, Tactical Commanders have
succeeded where they have made best use
of the time available before tactical
However considerable expertise is
re uired to o erate any Satellite system
an 1 any TAC k) AT Mission is likely to fail
unless an adequate control system is
created and worked up to a hi state of
readiness before the Tactica P situation
develops. An automated knowledgebased
system, including ap ropriate
simulation, will be essential to t 1 e success
of TACSAT support, which in turn is
likely to be decisive on future tactical
battlefields.
STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILTY
Any views ex ressed are those of the
author(s) and B o not necessarily represent
those of MM Government.