Pentagon Begins Deploying New Satellite Network to Link Sensors With Shooters

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Pentagon begins deploying new satellite network to link sensors with shooters:

The first 21 satellites in a constellation that could become a cornerstone for the Pentagon's Golden Dome missile defense shield successfully launched from California Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The Falcon 9 took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 7:12 am PDT (10:12 am EDT; 14:12 UTC) and headed south over the Pacific Ocean, heading for an orbit over the poles before releasing the 21 military-owned satellites to begin several weeks of activations and checkouts.

These 21 satellites will boost themselves to a final orbit at an altitude of roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers). The Pentagon plans to launch 133 more satellites over the next nine months to complete the build-out of the Space Development Agency's first-generation, or Tranche 1, constellation of missile tracking and data relay satellites.

"We had a great launch today for the Space Development Agency, putting this array of space vehicles into orbit in support of their revolutionary new architecture," said Col. Ryan Hiserote, system program director for the Space Force's assured access to space launch execution division.

Military officials have worked for six years to reach this moment. The Space Development Agency (SDA) was established during the first Trump administration, which made plans for an initial set of demonstration satellites that launched a couple of years ago. In 2022, the Pentagon awarded contracts for the first 154 operational spacecraft. The first batch of 21 data relay satellites built by Colorado-based York Space Systems is what went up Wednesday.

"Back in 2019, when the SDA was stood up, it was to do two things. One was to make sure that we can do beyond line of sight targeting, and the other was to pace the threat, the emerging threat, in the missile warning and missile tracking domain. That's what the focus has been," said GP Sandhoo, the SDA's acting director.

Historically, the military communications and missile warning networks have used a handful of large, expensive satellites in geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the Earth. This architecture was devised during the Cold War, and is optimized for nuclear conflict and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

For example, the military's ultra-hardened Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites in geosynchronous orbit are designed to operate through an electromagnetic pulse and nuclear scintillation. The Space Force's missile warning satellites are also in geosynchronous orbit, with infrared sensors tuned to detect the heat plume of a missile launch.

The problem? Those satellites cost more than $1 billion a pop. They're also vulnerable to attack from a foreign adversary. Pentagon officials say the SDA's satellite constellation, officially called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, is tailored to detect and track more modern threats, such as smaller missiles and hypersonic weapons carrying conventional warheads. It's easier for these missiles to evade the eyes of older early warning satellites.

What's more, the SDA's fleet in low-Earth orbit will have numerous satellites. Losing one or several satellites to an attack would not degrade the constellation's overall capability. The SDA's new relay satellites cost between $14 and $15 million each, according to Sandhoo. The total cost of the first tranche of 154 operational satellites totals approximately $3.1 billion.

These satellites will not only detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missile launches. They will also transmit signals between US forces using an existing encrypted tactical data link network known as Link 16. This UHF system is used by NATO and other US allies to allow military aircraft, ships, and land forces to share tactical information through text messages, pictures, data, and voice communication in near real-time, according to the SDA's website.

Up to now, Link 16 radios were ubiquitous on fighter jets, helicopters, naval vessels, and missile batteries. But they had a severe limitation. Link 16 was only able to close a radio link with a clear line of sight. The Space Development Agency's satellites will change that, providing direct-to-weapon connectivity from sensors to shooters on Earth's surface, in the air, and in space.

The relay satellites, which the SDA calls the transport layer, are also equipped with Ka-band and laser communication terminals for higher bandwidth connectivity.

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