Space Security Index

Space Support for Terrestrial Military Operations
signicantly increase available bandwidth. e $279-million 2010 DOD budget for WGS,
intended to transmit data at gigabit speeds, was to be used mainly for on-orbit testing of the
second and third satellites of the constellation. 10
In addition to dedicated systems, space-based military communications use commercial
operators such as Globalstar, Iridium, Intelsat, Inmarsat, and Telstar. e U.S. DOD will
likely continue to use some commercial services in the future, even with the deployment of
new systems.
Early Warning
Space-based early warning systems provide the U.S. with critical missile warning and
tracking capabilities. e U.S. Missile Defense Alarm System was rst deployed in a polar
orbit in 1960. U.S. DSP early warning satellites were rst launched in the early 1970s, with
the nal one in 2007, providing enhanced coverage of Russia while reducing the number
of necessary satellites to four. 11 e U.S. plans to replace the DSP system with SBIRS to
provide advanced surveillance capabilities for missile warning and missile defense. However,
the completion of SBIRS is more than eight years behind schedule and signicantly over
budget, with an estimated nal cost of more than $10-billion. 12 Details on the current status
of SBIRS are discussed below. e Alternative Infrared Space System, intended to act as
insurance in case of further diculties with the SBIRS program, was redesigned in 2007 as
a follow-on program, 3GIRS. 13 e U.S. STSS, discussed below, will work with SBIRS to
support missile defense responses.
Intelligence
e rst U.S. optical Corona satellites for imagery intelligence were launched as early as
1959, with the Soviets following suit by 1962. ese early remote sensing satellites, equipped
with lm cameras, had lifetimes of only days. At the end of their operational lifetimes,
capsules with the exposed lm were ejected from the satellite and collected, usually from
the ocean. Gradually, resolution of these cameras improved from about 10 m to less than
one meter. As early as 1976, the U.S. began to t its remote sensing satellites with chargecoupled
devices that took digital images, which could be transmitted back to Earth via radio
signal, providing near-real-time satellite imagery. 14 Open source information suggests that
the U.S. currently operates between eight and 10 imagery intelligence satellites through two
optical systems known as Crystal and Misty, and one synthetic aperture radar system known
as Lacrosse. While the exact resolution of recent remote sensing satellites remains classied,
the Improved Crystal satellites are believed to have a resolution of up to 6 inches. 15 e U.S.
operates between 18 and 27 signals intelligence satellites in four separate systems — the
Naval Ocean Surveillance System, Trumpet, Mentor, and Vortex. 16 e U.S. military also
uses commercial imagery services from DigitalGlobe and GeoEye.
e Future Imagery Architecture, intended to provide next-generation reconnaisance
capabilities through electro-optical and radar remote sensing, was cancelled in 2005 at a loss
of at least $4-billion, in what has been called “the most spectacular and expensive failure in
the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects.” 17 e Misty Stealth Reconnaissance
Imaging program was also cancelled due to costs, schedule delays, and poor performance. 18
An additional setback occurred when USA-193 failed in orbit in 2006.
Navigation
In 1964, the rst navigation system was deployed for military applications by the U.S. Navy
and its position resolution was accurate to 100 m. is system and others that followed were
ultimately replaced by GPS, which was declared operational in 1993 and uses a minimum
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