NFIRE Could Intercept Missile Target From Space by 2006
May 6, 2004 :: Global Security Newswire :: News
The Missile Defense agency is reportedly planning to test the Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) system in 2006, according to the Globalsecurity Newswire, citing an apparent email discussion among defense officials. The NFIRE has the potential to aid in the development of a space-based kill vehicle to be used to intercept a ballistic missile.
The NFIRE spacecraft is said to be under construction and planned for launch in late 2005. The 2006 test, supposing it were to occur, would probably not involve an interception, except incidentally, but only the gathering of sensor data. The interceptor is said to not be capable of “weapon-like” movement; “There is a significant chance the KV will impact the target, but that is not our objective.” (More »»»)
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MDA: Low-Earth Orbit Missile Tracker Six Months Ahead of Schedule
April 28, 2004 :: Inside Defense :: News
Citing an April 13 report from the Missile Defense Agency, Inside Missile Defense says that the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), a $3 billion low-earth orbit satellite scanning system that tracks ballistic missiles in space, passed an important design review last December and is six months ahead of schedule.
The STSS is mounted with two infrared sensors, “a wide-view acquisition sensor for boost phase detection and a narrow-view sensor that tracks delivery vehicles through the middle of their trajectories in space.”
Two STSS satellites are expected to be launched in 2007, after the “integration” of the pair of sensors begins in 2005. (Link)
» More stories on: Space-Based Systems, Detection and Tracking
» Missile system details for: Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS)
Russia: Space a Clear Interest
April 27, 2004 :: News
Vladimir Putin told the Russian space sector leadership today that space activity is key to Russia’s development, reports Rosbalt news.
Putin, Rosbalt notes, said that the development of space unquestionably plays an important role in national security, economic growth and increased competitiveness.
In a January 2001 special session of the Defense Council, Russia’s space policies were reportedly discussed as both strategic and practical goals to strengthen Russia’s position in the world. (Article, Link)
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Air Force to Spend $4 Billion on Space-Based Radar Through FY-09
April 14, 2004 :: Inside Defense :: News
Inside Missile Defense reports that the Air Force will increase spending on the Space-Based Radar (SBR) program to total over $4 billion through fiscal year 2009, the year the radar program is expected to begin production. The current year will see $173 spent on radar research and development, and the Air Force has asked for $328 for FY 2005. FY-06 will be allocated $466 million by the Air Force, $503 million for FY-07, $1.2 billion in FY-08, and $1.5 billion in FY-09.
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have already began work on the system’s sensor payload, and Science Applications International Corporation is contracted for SBR engineering and integration work. Inside Missile Defense also notes that the Defense Science Board is examining a possible role for the SBR program in missile defense. (Link)
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New Space Defenses: A Return to Brilliant Pebbles?
March 30, 2004 :: ABC News :: News
ABC News describes recent reports that the US is moving toward missile defenses in space, specifically the Missile Defense Agency’s Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) program, a form of tracking system which may also include an interceptor which could then be directed toward an incoming missile.
ABC makes far too much of the defensive interceptor’s potential for “weaponizing” space. It is the missiles themselves which have truly weaponized space. Any long range missile, such as those Russia and China have armed with nuclear weapons, would travel through space. Much of a missile’s flight time is spent in space, so the use of space would be used as a platform for defensive systems only makes sense.
What is not noted by recent coverage of such programs, however, is that such an interceptor, still in the design stage, would appear to resembles the laudable “Brilliant Pebbles” program begun under President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. Brilliant Pebbles consisted of a small, partly autonomous constellation of satellites which would first detect a missile launch, then release a watermelon-sized interceptor which would collide with an oncoming missile fairly early in its travels. Funding for the Brilliant Pebbles program was cut in the early 1990s, under the Clinton administration.
A renewed interest in the promising program may also be seen in the develoment of other miniaturization technologies. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin received a contract to develop a Miniature Kill Vehicle (MKV). Unfortunately, such systems are, at best, in only the design stage, and are not being pursued aggresively. ABC’s warning of space weaponization is, therefore, quite misplaced. To the extent that such programs would be pursued pursued, however, it would be all for the better. (Article, Link)
» Feb. 9, 2004: Lockheed gets MKV contract
» Mar. 25 Press Release on NFIRE
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» Missile system details for: Brilliant Pebbles
Kadish: No Space Defenses Yet
March 22, 2004 :: News
At a March 22 missile defense conference held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, General Ronald Kadish, head of the Missile Defense Agency, told the gathering the U.S. would not yet be pursuing space-based missile defenses, because we do not yet need them, based on the “threats we face at this particular time in the evolution of the missile defense systems.” Kadish however added that this “situation may or may not last a long time.”
Kadish prudently left the door open for space-based interceptors, by citing the need for an evolving layered defense. But the fact is that the need for space-based interceptors exists now.
The land-based systems is Alaska are well designed to provide a foundation for a defense against a very few long-range missiles launched from a country such as Iran or North Korea. But there are at least two sorts of attacks the interceptors to be deployed in Alaska this year will not defend against: large strategic attacks from Russia or China, or small attacks from off our coast, in the form of a short-range missile fired from a ship against a U.S. city. In the former case, the number of interceptors is dwarfed by our enemies’ strategic arsenals, and in the latter, the flight time of the missile is simply too short and too brief for a land-based interceptor at any but the closest distance to have time to intercept it. Space-based lasers, by contrast, could have an almost instantaneous reaction time, and destroy even the short range missile during its most vulnerable ascent, or boost-phase.
As Republican Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado noted at the same meeting, space-based missile defense systems are cost-effective and “will add considerably to our defense posture.” No reliable defense against short-range ship-launched missiles, or long-range strategic attacks with a number of missiles, can do without space. Space will be, as Donald Rumsfeld has said, space is “essential to the future of modern warfare.” Without space, missile defenses are unlikely to provide for the truly strategic defense of the United States. (Link)
» Dec. 10, 2003: Rumsfeld: BMD is “America’s highest priority”
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The Struggle for Space
March 13, 2004 :: Analysis
In the March edition of Air Force Magazine, editor Robert S. Dudney describes the essential character of space for future warfare. Currently, the U.S. is extremely dependent upon its space assets for military operations, but has virtually no means of protecting the same, despite advances in space technology by potential enemies—such as China.
Dudney addresses what is one of the most critical obstacles to serious missile defenses, the aversion to putting defenses in space under the mistaken assumption that they constitute some devious “weaponization of space.” The fact is that space is an essential element to American security, and we must choose to defend it, or not. Dudley goes on, however, to say that the Air Force increasingly sees the need for such defenses, and references a recent “Strategic Master Plan” paper by Space Command, “that places unprecedented emphasis on the need for ‘counterspace’ capabilities.” Nevertheless,
Unless the US makes a course correction, it will, at some point, probably suffer a serious attack on its assets in space, one that would hamper its military operations. Seen in that light, USAF’s space proposals seem not only sensible but restrained.
(Article, Link)
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Russia Launches Military Satellite
February 18, 2004 :: News
Russia has launched a strategic communication satellite as part of its massive strategic exercises. The Cosmos-2405 (Molniya-1T) communication satellite was successfully placed in orbit by a Molniya-M rocket from the Plesetsk launch site. President Putin is said to have personally observed the launch. (Article, Link)
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U.S. Missile Warning Satellite Launched
February 14, 2004 :: Space.com :: News
The Cold War may be over, but the threat from ballistic missiles is not, as Russia’s nuclear war exercise should assure any doubts to the contrary. Today a Titan 4 placed an American missile launch warning satellite into orbit.
The 5,000 pound Defense Support Program (DSP) Satellite is part of an older network which uses infrared sensors to track heat and light such as that generated from a missile’s plume as it takes flight. Plans have long been in place, however, to replace these with a newer and more advanced network of satellites called the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). Nevertheless, “These satellites will remain the backbone for the nation’s missile warning system,” said Col. Robert Reese of the Space & Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base. One other DSP satellite is also reportedly scheduled to be launched in March, by a Delta 4 rocket.
As Chief of DSP operations at Peterson Air Force Base, Major Francis Diorin commented, “The threat is still there.” “The Soviets still have ICBMs on alert,” he noted. Indeed, this week’s extensive tests by Russia confirm that the former Soviet Union means to not only keep, but improve and increase both their offensive strategic ballistic missiles and their own missile defense system. The United States has a moral duty to its citizenry to defend against these threats.
The DSP satellite is No. 22 of 23 in the constellation. (Article, Link)
» Lockheed press release from launch
» Video of Titan launch
» More stories on: Space-Based Systems, Detection and Tracking
» Missile system details for: Defense Support Program (DSP)
Miniature Kill Vehicles
February 9, 2004 :: SpaceDaily :: News
Lockheed Martin has received a contract to develop a “miniature” missile defense interceptor. The idea of such an interceptor would be to destroy multiple warheads released by a single missile, or both the warhead as well as any possible countermeasures.
A number of interceptors, by some accounts as many as 12, would be housed within a single launch vehicle, and then released together at a certain point when approaching the offensive missile. (Article, Link)
» Space and MD Command: description of MKV
» Jan. 7, 2004: MDA contract, description of MKV
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