Spy Satellite Agency Has Plans to Quadruple US Eyes in the Sky

Original article here.


(Bloomberg) — The US intelligence agency that develops and buys spy satellites plans a fourfold increase by 2033 in orbiting spacecraft like those now being used to monitor Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Within the next decade we expect to quadruple the number of satellites we currently have on orbit,” the National Reconnaissance Office, once a super-secret agency, said in a statement Wednesday. “These satellites — large and small, in multiple orbits” will collect and transmit “ten times as many signals and images as we’re getting now, and will engage a mix of government and commercial systems.”

Competition for the lucrative Pentagon contracts to launch those satellites will pit billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX against the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of top contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. Blue Origin LLC, founded by Amazon.com Inc. Chairman Jeff Bezos, is also trying to qualify for military launches.

The expansion “will take us from dozens of systems on orbit in 2023 to hundreds of systems on orbit in the next few years,” the agency said in the statement, which expanded on remarks made Tuesday at an industry conference by National Reconnaissance Office Director Chris Scolese.

The NRO, whose existence wasn’t declassified until 1992, received some unwelcome attention with the leak online of Pentagon documents earlier in April. One chart marked “secret” depicted a Jan. 31 narrative of where the battle for the Donbas region of Ukraine was “likely heading.”

“We have moderate confidence in this assessment based on NR0-collected and commercial imagery,” according to the document posted on the Discord social-media app.

Surveillance of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was buttressed by two of the US’s newer satellite systems built with commercial parts and on-board imagery processes, Scolese disclosed in April 2022.

Alongside orbiting spy satellites, new systems built using commercial technology have “enabled NATO and the entire world to see in real time the Russian military buildup prior to its invasion,” Scolese told a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing at the time. The new systems “went from concept to orbit in less than three years,” he said.

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About the Author: Patriotman

Patriotman currently ekes out a survivalist lifestyle in a suburban northeastern state as best as he can. He has varied experience in political science, public policy, biological sciences, and higher education. Proudly Catholic and an Eagle Scout, he has no military experience and thus offers a relatable perspective for the average suburban prepper who is preparing for troubled times on the horizon with less than ideal teams and in less than ideal locations. Brushbeater Store Page: http://bit.ly/BrushbeaterStore

One Comment

  1. boss21 April 20, 2023 at 10:15

    Now they can observe their defeat with even more clarity.

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