A-Infos (en) Smaller Spy Satellites May Give U.S. Stealth Capability

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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     SMALLER SPY SATELLITES MAY GIVE U.S. STEALTH CAPABILITY
     OVER TROUBLE SPOTS
_________________________________________________________________
 
     By Walter Pincus
     Washington Post Staff Writer
     Sunday, February 1, 1998; Page A09
     http://www.washingtonpost.com/   
   
     A new generation of small intelligence satellites, planned
to be launched beginning in 2003, is expected to give U.S.
analysts almost constant overhead images of specific trouble
spots anywhere in the world, according to administration and
congressional sources.
   
     Some of the new vehicles may be equipped with stealth
technology so they cannot be tracked by radar, several sources
said. But other sources doubt a way has been found to prevent
detection of the satellites, a feat the CIA and Pentagon have
been trying to accomplish since the 1960s.
   
     The new satellites could have a major effect on intelligence
gathering like that currently occurring in Iraq.
   
     Today, the Iraqi government can determine through tracking
systems when U.S. non-stealth satellites and U-2 aircraft fly
over the country and take measures to cover up suspected weapons
sites, sources said. More satellites and stealth capability would
complicate if not prevent Iraq or any other country from knowing
when to hide potential targets, sources added.
   
     Keith Hall, director of the National Reconnaissance Office
(NRO) which buys and flies the satellites, would not discuss
stealth capability in satellites.
   
     Other sources on Capitol Hill and within the intelligence
community said the existence of the technology in satellites is
one of the closest-held secrets in government.
   
     The CIA maintained a covert satellite program in the 1960s
that included plans to use decoys on Corona photo satellites to
reduce their vulnerability to anti-satellite missiles and black
paint to absorb radar beams and reduce chances of detection.
There is no indication in released NRO documents that these plans
were ever implemented but similar systems have since been used on
nuclear inter-continental ballistic missiles.
   
     Other sources, however, said that a spy satellite launched
in February 1990 in orbit over the Soviet Union that was later
reported to have exploded and broken into four pieces was in fact
a stealth satellite shedding its outer decoy shell.
   
     The Pentagon in 1990 acknowledged that the space shuttle
Atlantis had "achieved its goal" associated with a classified
program and that "hardware elements associated with the mission
are expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere" without causing
damage.
   
     The satellite did not disappear, according to John Pike, a
specialist with the Federation of American Scientists. Instead it
moved into a different orbit and remained in there until October
1990, when it disappeared from view.
   
     "My conclusion," Pike said, "is that it moved into higher
orbit and deployed stealth features. It vanished at about the
same time President Bush beefed up U.S. forces for Desert Storm."
The reported explosion and disintegration of the satellite, he
said, "was apparently testing decoy apparatus."
   
     Pike said he believes that a new communications satellite
launched by NRO last Thursday is to be used to communicate with
stealth imagery satellites through laser transmissions. The NRO
declines to discuss any issue involving stealth satellites.
   
     Hall said during a recent interview that if enough of the
new, small satellites were purchased and launched, their overhead
coverage of a target could come as often as every 15 minutes.
   
     An aide, however, said Hall was using 15 minutes as a goal,
but that future coverage depended ultimately on how many small
satellites are put in orbit.
   
     Meeting the goal would require dozens of imagery satellites,
other sources said, depending on the type used and the clarity of
images desired.
   
     Production of the first of the new small satellites is
scheduled to begin this year with initial launches five years
from now, Hall said. The final number that will be in orbit at
one time has not been decided, but the United States will have
anywhere from "twice to four times as many" as there have been in
the past, Hall said.
   
     The intelligence satellites now in space, both imagery and
signal collectors, total around 12, although the exact number is
classified. They were designed in the early 1980s and cost an
average of $1 billion apiece, since each virtually was
"handmade," Hall said. Because some are these are the size of a
city bus, they needed to be put into orbit by giant Titan IV
rockets. That requirement added tens of millions more to the
cost.
   
     In addition, the infrequency of major rocket launches
carrying large cargoes such as the current satellites has meant
that only two of these satellites at most have been deployed in
any year. If a launch or placement into orbit failed, it could
take a year or more to send up a replacement satellite.
   
     Today's orbiting imagery satellites, such as the Keyhole,
can be seen from the ground, according to Pike, because their
size makes them almost visible to the naked eye and easily
trackable by radar.
   
     The new, small satellites, which will be about the size of a
small van, present a vastly different situation.
   
     They cost from $250 to $500 million apiece and will take
just five years to design and build.
   
     In addition, since more of them are going to be built, Hall
said NRO may develop an assembly-line technique and drive the
cost of each down. Studies also are underway to see if the
missiles that launch them can be built the same way, avoiding the
cost of the giant Titan IVs.
   
     Unlike the older satellites, the smaller ones will be built
to be launched on 30-day notice if needed, Hall said, giving new
flexibility to the force.
   
     One problem with the prospect of increased imagery in the
next century is that the military services in the past been have
slow to acquire new analytic and display equipment to handle the
increased data, according to Pentagon sources.
   
     The Pentagon-based National Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA) has begun a major overhaul and a coordinated effort to
standardize transmission and display equipment within the
intelligence community.
   
     Its goal is to have the new system in place by 2003 when
data flow expands significantly.
 
Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
 
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