> The Hindu
>
> Thursday, Apr 14, 2005
>
> Russia opposes U.S. space plan
>
<...>
You might want to note that Russian "space troops" have existed for a few years as a branch of their military, as well.
Here's what the American version looks like: http://www4.army.mil/FA40/index.html
Wouldn't want any competition... would they?
Here's what's happening overhead, as observed by the Russians:
"The cycle of preparations for the launch of the Falcon-1 SLV takes three to five days and the mobile launcher makes it possible to inject a satellite into orbit at any inclination."
[...] The payload of the TacSat-1 includes:
· an electronic reconnaissance complex, with a power consumption rated at 70 W, used for the detection and identification of radio transmitters,
(They will be able to locate your cellphone, or RFID chip (heh) //lcm)
· an infrared (IR) miniature optoelectronic camera with a non-cryogenically cooled microbolometer focal plane array,
(They can locate your "heat signature". //lcm)
· a medium-resolution optoelectronic digital camera operating in the visible spectral band and equipped with an electronic shutter.
(Smile for the camera! //lcm)
Russian Military and Security Media Coverage #4177 [15 November 2004]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RMSMC
Microsatellite for Combat Moscow Novosti Kosmonavtiki in Russian 01 Mar 04 pp 42-43
MICROSATELLITE FOR COMBAT The gamble on small-scale satellites for battlefield reconnaissance by A. Kucheyko, especially for Novosti Kosmonavtiki
In 2004, the Pentagon is planning to demonstrate a new approach to information support for frontline armed forces contingents in remote theaters of war. The gamble is being taken on automated microsatellites for electronc and visual reconnaissance launched on short notice at the behest of the commanders of task force contingents.
Efforts toward the development of tactical reconnaissance satellites of the TacSat series have been conducted within the context of a joint US Air Force-US Navy project, since the fall of 2003. The project is headed by the Office of Force Transformation (OFT), created as part of the US Department of Defense in 2001 amidst the fight against terrorism and the activation of combat operations on the part of US Armed Forces in diverse regions of the world..
The underlying notion is simple: existing reconnaissance systems, created on behalf of the US intelligence community (13 different agencies) as well as the armed forces, involve excessively high cost ($500 million to $1 billion per satellite) and a lengthy life cycle, including a 5-10 year design phase. By the end of this period, many a technical solution becomes obsolete. The notion of tactical satellites arose in response to the need for specialized space resources for the commanders of combat contingents and units engaged in combat operations. The notion of a tactical satellite can exist pursuant to a number of circumstances, viz.:
· the low cost of the manufacture and launch of a tactical microsatellite with a programmed service lifetime of 0.5-2 years; · superior operational capacity for carrying out reconnaissance tasks and conveying information to users.
In order to reduce the cost of TacSat satellites, plans call for the broad application of existing satellite platforms and reconnaissance instrumentation developed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as new inexpensive missiles with reusable components. The dissemination of information is to be carried out employing Internet networks that are already developed, thereby obviating the need for developing specialized receiver terminals.
In order to provide heightened operational capacity, the central control and information processing agencies located in US territory are to be excluded from the operational cycle for planning. Thus, tactical satellites shall become an intelligence resource for the commanders of force contingents in a theater of war.
A New Operational Concept for Tactical Microsatellites
In keeping with the developed concept, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) are including the launch of tactical satellites in the operational plan for the combat transformation of regional command forces. The development of the TacSat system is being carried out at the behest of the commander of the joint expeditionary forces (Cf., Commander, Joint Task Force (CJTF)). It is precisely he who makes the decision as to the need for the launch of a tactical microsatellite, determines the composition of its payload, the regions for reconnaissance of the zone of conflict, the location of stations for the direct reception of satellite-based information, and the deadlines for system development.
The launch team takes into account the required parameters of the operational orbit, determines the need for expendable materials (i.e., the fuel supply, the charge on the storage batteries, etc.), and carries out satellite pre-launch preparations and launches over the course of 3-5 days after the receipt of a request. After the launch, there is circulated an operations schedule for the on-board transmitters in direct data transfer mode. Fulfillment of requests for target reconnaissance begins within days after the launch of a microsatellite.
The basic operating principles of tactical satellites are:
· operational interaction with UAVs while searching for, detecting, and identifying reconnaissance targets; · programming of the operation of on-board instrumentation and the dissemination of information via the web-server of the SIPRNET (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network) classified data transmission network, using developed Internet technologies.
Users are to introduce the coordinates of the reconnaissance targets, after which the sequence for fulfillment of the requests is determined, pursuant to a priorities algorithm. Tactical microsatellites are to be equipped with radio complexes for two-way data transmission in the ultra-shortwave, S, and C frequency bands.
The principal advantages accruing to the use of a network based on Internet technologies are:
· an increase in the number of users; · the absence of specialized terminals, making possible a reduction in project costs, and · a standard workstation interface, thus limiting the need for the specialized training of operators.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FALCON-1 SPACE LAUNCH VEHICLE
Length, m 21.3 Diameter, m 1.7 Mass, metric tons 27.2 Payload mass, injected into low orbit, kg 650
On short notice, there can be developed in orbit a special constellation of tactical microsatellites manufactured on the basis of a unified platform, but equipped with diverse reconnaissance instrumentation.
Operational Access to Space [...]
The TacSat Series of Experimental Tactical Reconnaissance Satellites
The TacSat-1 Microsatellite
The initial experiment, having received the designation Operationally Responsive Space Experiment, is slated to commence by the spring of 2004. Using the Falcon-1 SLV, the small-scale TacSat-1 satellite for electronic and visual reconnaissance is to be injected into orbit at an altitude of 500 km. The principal developer of the project and the microsatellite is the US Navy's Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). By American standards, the time needed for implementation of the project as well as its financial cost are at record low levels:
· the time from the commencement of project development to the launch of a satellite amounts to about nine months, for a satellite active life-cycle of 1 year; · the overall cost of the project is $15 million, including the $6 million-dollar cost of the launch.
An upgraded Microstar platform, with a mass of 64 kg and employed in the Orbcomm low-orbit telecommunications satellite system, is being used as a basic platform. The electrical power supply system is rated at 270 W. The overall mass of the satellite is 110 kg (the mass of the Orbcomm satellite is 44 kg). The hull diameter is 1 m; the length, including a boom, is 3.6 m.
The payload of the TacSat-1 includes:
· an electronic reconnaissance complex, with a power consumption rated at 70 W, used for the detection and identification of radio transmitters, · an infrared (IR) miniature optoelectronic camera with a non-cryogenically cooled microbolometer focal plane arr (array //lcm). · a medium-resolution optoelectronic digital camera operating in the visible spectral band and equipped with an electronic shutter.
The TacSat-2 Microsatellite
The second tactical microsatellite, the TacSat-2, is being developed at a competing agency -- the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) -- and is to be launched after one year of testing of the TacSat-1 microsatellite. In the capacity of a basic platform, there is being employed the Next Generation Multifunctional Bus (NGMB) platform manufactured by the Microsat Systems firm, for the TechSat-21 project which was discontinued in 2003 (the estimated mass of the satellites is 120-150 kg). The basic payload of the TacSat-2 is an electronic reconnaissance complex with a power consumption rated at 7 W and an optoelectronic system with improved resolution. Taking into account the analytical results of experience with the operation of the TacSat-1 and TacSat-2 satellites, future plans call for the development of a prospective TacSat-3.
Efforts in the Field of Space Resources for Battelfield Reconnaissance
Efforts in the field of information support to troops on the battlefield, using space-based reconnaissance data, have proceeded through various phases:
· within the context of the Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) program, the creation of ground-based complexes for receiving and processing space-based data and for its dissemination to users among the troops (1970-1990); · the development of space systems in accordance with a new architecture for the collection and routing of information to users (since the 1990s); · the development of specialized tactical reconnaissance satellites (as of 2000).
In the 1980s, within the context of the overall TENCAP project, all types of armed forces incorporated into their arsenals mobile and transportable complexes for receiving , processing, and disseminating space-based reconnaissance data. At the same time, each agency endeavored to develop its own complexes, inevitably leading to conflict in terms of formats and standards.
Further revamping of the architecture of US military space forces began in the 1990s, in connection with the termination of the "cold war" and a significantly reduced military budget. During the war in the Persian Gulf (1990-1991), serious shortcomings came to light -- interagency and inter-species barriers, duplication of effort, the lack of actual yield from space-based reconnaissance information which became lodged in the central control echelons, failing to make its way to the level of the troops.
One of the basic orientations for structural redefinition of the space forces in the US was the elimination of interagency barriers in the domain of the development and operation of space-based reconnaissance resources. In accordance with the new architecture, representatives of the intelligence community and of the types of armed forces are sharing not the space systems, but rather the jointly acquired information. In the 1990s, the aerospace reconnaissance directorate, the NRO, gave up financing the separate classified programs of the Air Force, the CIA, and the Navy, making the transition to the financing of programs of visual and electronic reconnaissance (image intelligence (IMINT) and signals intelligence (SIGINT)). Thanks to that decision, there occurred a possibility for interaction among various systems in the course of the joint collection of reconnaissance data. This manifested itself principally in the unification of ground-based processing complexes having formerly belonged to individual types of armed forces and to the diverse services of the intelligence community.
The restructuring of military space systems, begun in the 1990s, was focused upon the creation of a new architecture capable of providing information superiority during the conduct of combat operations, with a simultaneous reduction of financial costs.
For instance, after 30 years of the concurrent operation of two low-orbit space systems which handled electronic reconnaissance missions on behalf of the US Air Force (satellites of the Ferret- Bernie type) [Translator's Note: The word "ferret" is routinely and generically applied to US electronic reconnaissance satellites and likely was NOT meant to be capitalized here, save that the author likely mistook the term as the satellite name. "Bernie" is likely a reference to the codename formerly employed for a classified US Air Force "combined advanced applications" satellite program] and the US Navy (satellites of the NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System), Parcae, and Ranger type), in 2001 and in 2003, there were launched two twin-satellite groups of the Libra unified electronic reconnaissance system (viz., "Libra", the designation of the key satellites, the USA-160 and the USA-173). In the future, there shall be the development of the Intruder unified electronic reconnaissance system, instead of the Air Force's Mercury and the CIA's Orion space systems currently in operation.
New microsatellite technologies and decisions making possible the launch of satellites for a separate command, gave life to the notion of a tactical reconnaissance satellite. Tactical space resources are to conduct reconnaissance in conjunction with UAVs, aviation-related and ground-based systems, and, possibly, in the proximate future, shall become indispensable collaborators in the process of planning and decision-making during the conduct of combat operations.
References
1. Ackerman, R.; "Small Satellite Offers Glimpse of the Future"; Signal Magazine; January 2004;
2. SpaceX Company [sic] Internet site, http://www.spacex.com/;
3. Internet site of the organization, Federation of American Scientists (FAS), http://www.fas.org/spp/index.html;
4. Office of Force Transformation (OFT) Internet site, http://www.oft.osd.mil/;
5. Gunter Krebs' Internet site, http://space.skyrocket.de/doc------sdat/tacsat-1.htm.
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