Space Security Index

Space Support for Terrestrial Military Operations
space programs. 209 e joint EU/ESA GMES project will collate and disseminate data
from satellite systems and is anticipated to be operational by 2012, at a cost exceeding
$2.7-billion. 210 It will support activities given priority in the European Security and Defense
Policy, such as natural disaster early warning, rapid damage assessment, and surveillance and
support to combat forces. 211 Similarly, the Galileo satellite navigation program, initiated
in 1999 and jointly funded by the EU and ESA, will provide location, navigation, and
timing capabilities for both civilian and military users. 212 ESA, which has traditionally been
restricted to working on projects designed exclusively for peaceful purposes, has begun to
invest in dual-use, security-related research, such as Galileo.
East Asia
e commercial Superbird satellite system provides military communications for Japan,
which also has four “information gathering” remote sensing satellites — two optical and
two radar — that were launched in 2003 and 2007 following growing concerns over North
Korean missile launches. 213 Ocially called the Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) series
and under the control of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Oce, IGS 3A and 3B provide
images of up to 1-m resolution to the Japanese military. 214 Japan is primarily interested in
monitoring the Korean Peninsula, but the IGS system provides a scan of the entire planet
at least once a day. 215
In December 2003, South Korea announced its intentions to increasingly use space for
military purposes. 216 South Korea operates the civilian Kompsat-1 satellite with 6.6-m
resolution, which is “sucient for [military] mapping although not for military intelligence
collection.” 217 It also bought 10 Hawker 800-series satellites from the U.S. and has operated
them for signals intelligence since 1999. 218 On 22 August 2006, Sea Launch launched South
Korea’s dual military/commercial Koreasat-5 (Mugunghwa 5) communications satellite to
replace Koreasat-2 by providing Ku-band, C-band, and military SHF-band communications.
Jointly owned by the French Agency for Defense Development (DGA) and South Korea’s
KT Corp, it will provide secure communications for South Korea’s defense forces. 219 South
Korea also launched the Kompsat-2 high-resolution Remote Sensing Satellite for Earth
mapping in 2006. 220 Although a civilian spacecraft, its 1-m resolution could allow it to serve
as a reconnaissance asset. 221
In July 2004, ailand signed a deal with the EADS Astrium to provide its rst remote
sensing satellite, to be used for intelligence and defense. 222 e THEOS Earth Observation
Satellite, which orbits in LEO, was launched on 1 October 2008 for the ai government. 223
Taiwan, which has its own space program, operates the civilian Formosa-2 optical imaging
satellite, which has a resolution of 1.8 m and is also used by its military forces. 224
Middle East
Israel operates the dedicated military Ofeq optical imaging system, which provides both
panchromatic and color imagery for intelligence purposes. 225 e latest satellite in the system
Ofeq-9, launched in June 2010, is in a constellations with two Ofeq satellites (Ofeq-5 and
Ofeq-7), and reportedly can identify objects as small as approximately 0.5-m. 226 Ofeq’s
capabilities are augmented by the dual-use Eros-A and -B imagery satellites, the latter able
to capture black-and-white images at 70-cm resolution. 227 In January 2008, Israel launched
the TecSAR reconnaissance satellite on an Indian launch vehicle rocket. Considered one of
the world’s most advanced space systems 228 with a resolution of up to 10 cm, 229 the TecSAR
is reportedly used to spy on Iran. 230
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