Space arms race a step closer
leading efforts to improve space situational awareness — including upgrades to the Space Fence, a system of ground-based space-monitoring sensors — as well as the planned fielding in 2009 of the Space-Based Space Surveillance electro-optical satellite designed to monitor other spacecraft. These systems will provide a better understanding of what objects are in space, which is increasingly important since hard-to-detect micro satellites that could jeopardize Pentagon systems are beginning to proliferate.
What is needed, though, writes Butler, is the ability to predict when a missile threat is coming and maneuver around it. The Rapid Attack Identification Detection Reporting System (RAIDRS) Block 20 is only conceptual, but the Air Force intends for it to collect data from open and classified sources to provide predictability in the event of an ASAT attack. The Pentagon had been monitoring activities in China leading up to its 2007 anti-satellite test, but defense officials worry that future threats may be a surprise and, thus, hard to outmaneuver. Originally envisioned as a block upgrade to the RAIDRS system now operating in the Middle East, Hamel says plans for the new version have blossomed further than originally thought. Since China’s ASAT demonstration, Pentagon officials have become more vocal about the need for defensive and offensive “counterspace” options. Defensive operations require technologies to protect space systems from a range of threats while offensive operations look to deny an adversary access to its data from space. These are thorny political issues, as lawmakers are hesitant overtly to fund activities that could be perceived as using space as a battlefield. The Chinese test, however, added weight to the Pentagon’s position that — at the very least — it must have these systems ready. Even so, political debate on the issue is not likely to fade with a Congress controlled by Democrats.
While work is being done in classified programs on both fronts, RAIDRS Block 20 has the distinction of being the Pentagon’s only acknowledged program designed to counter direct-ascent ASAT attacks. RAIDRS Block 10, its predecessor, includes ground-based hardware and software that lets the military monitor the integrity of its commercial satellite communications links. The system can also detect the origin of jamming, allowing commanders to determine if it is unintentional or an attack. Operations began supporting the massive commercial satellite communications requirements in the Middle East with a prototype system; full operational capability isn’t expected until 2011. Integral Systems of Lanham, Maryland,
