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October 7, 2001; While the US intelligence budget has steadily climbed to $30 billion, and the anti-terrorism budget to $12 billion, relatively little of this is spent on human intelligence. There are several reasons for this. The 1975 Church Committee limited the CIA's abilities to conduct operations, President Carter dismissed half of the human spies to refocus the agency on technical intelligence gathering, and President Clinton issued new rules prohibiting (without special permission) the use as sources or agents those foreigners who were guilty of human rights violations or war crimes.--Stephen V Cole
September 29, 2001; A new Pentagon report notes a sudden increase in the number of foreign attempts to obtain US military technology. Companies and governments from a total of 63 nations, many of them allies, have been detected spying on US defense contractors. Targets include information technology, sensors, lasers, aerospace systems, weapons, energetic materials, and electronics. Components and subsystems are a specific target, indicating that the espionage is aimed at upgrading existing weapons and equipment.--Stephen V Cole
August 10, 2001; For some forty years, space satellites have been the key American strategic reconnaissance tool. America began designing and building recon satellites in the 1950s. This was the Corona (called Discover for public consumption) series, using film capsules ejected for pick up on earth. The first launch (Discover 1) was in January, 1959. It failed. Discover 13 and 14, in August, 1959, finally succeeded. The cameras in these satellites had a 7.5 meters (25 feet) resolution (items 25 feet or larger could be made out.) This was very expensive, as once the satellite ran out of film, it became space junk. The Corona satellites kept going up, with rapidly improving versions of the Key Hole camera. By 1972, when the Corona program ended, it was getting a resolution of 1.8 meters. Satellites dropping film canisters were used by the United States until the early 1980s. During the Corona program, over a million photos were taken from space. Many of these pictures were of large areas, so accurate maps could be made of otherwise inaccessible places like China and the Soviet Union.
Corona was replaced by all electronic photo satellites. The first, KH-11 was launched in 1976. By the mid 1980s, all U.S. recon satellites were using, in effect, digital cameras. Resolution continued to get better through the 1980s and 90s. Today it's about 100mm (some say less, but the exact figure is classified, so anyone who knows it and blabs it gets arrested). Better software and hardware made it possible to get photos more quickly and without misleading information. The latest KH-11's (sometimes called KH-12) also have an infrared sensor, enabling them to see through clouds. The latest KH-11s also carry more fuel, allowing an useful life of up to eight years. Earlier model KH birds only lasted a year or two before their fuel ran out (or something broke down.) The current KH satellites can also be serviced by the Space Shuttle.
In the early 1980s, the first radar satellite (Indigo) went up. This was soon renamed Lacrosse and today they are called Vega. With a resolution of about 1.5 meters, they can operate day or night and in any weather.
There are many other types of military satellites up there. Most well known are the 24 GPS birds that provide navigation information. These first went up in the late 1980s. Since the early 1970s, there have been DSP (Defense Support System) infrared satellites in high orbit, looking for ballistic missile launches. There are currently five DSP birds up there. During the 1991 Gulf War, the DSP satellites proved sensitive enough to detect SCUD missile launches in Iraq. There are also over a dozen military communications and weather satellites in orbit.
And then there are the secret satellite programs. Most of these apparently have to do with electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare. Astronomy buffs have spotted some of these, in some cases clusters of unidentified satellites. America has the largest fleet of military satellites, both in terms of quantity and quality. It’s a formidable military asset.
August 5, 2001; Armies say they practice how they would deal with gathering intelligence in wartime, and maybe they do. But the experience in the Balkans has demonstrated that one should never underestimate the unexpected. One of the sources of the unexpected has been the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.) These little aircraft are controlled from the ground, or simply programmed to fly a search pattern and come home. They cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars each. Occasionally they are lost in action, usually because some component (engine, electronics, Etc.) fails in flight. Recently, an American UAV was lost in Kosovo. There was a communications problem, so the UAV was ordered to shut down and a deploy a bright orange parachute and land. There was no way to find it with a built in beacon, because of the electronic problem. There wasn't enough manpower available to beat the bushes for it, so a decision was made to offer a reward over local radio stations for the UAVs return. Oops, it seems the UAV went down in the German sector. After some bureaucratic burlesque with the Germans over who could do what, the Germans had the local radio stations offer a $45 reward (100 Deutchmarks) for the UAVs return. No response at first, and there ensued a debate over whether a photo or detailed description of the UAV should be released. The fact that the UAV was not top secret and pictures of it had appeared in the media eventually shut down that discussion. Then there was a lot of angst about releasing the ID number painted on the UAV. How this info would impact NATO security in the Balkans was never fully explained. Then someone realized that a radio announcer broadcast the fact that the UAV was worth over a million dollars (true) and contained "advanced technology" (not true.) Now everyone got nervous about some crafty Kosovar peasant finding the UAV in his cabbage patch and taking it to the nearest gang of Albanian gangsters to explore export options (China?, Iraq?). And the problem still remained with the Germans, who went about finding the UAV as they felt best, not as the Americans wanted. Before the Intel pukes achieved a mass mental breakdown, the UAV was found. But this was not the end of the UAV adventures, as the coordination problem between the NATO allies in Kosovo was still not solved. This was driven home shortly thereafter when a French UAV, flying a predetermined search pattern, just missed a helicopter carrying several American generals. The French saw no need to let the Americans know that a French UAV was going to over fly the American sector. After all, isn't it common knowledge that UAVs have the right of way?
September 29, 2001; A new Pentagon report notes a sudden increase in the number of foreign attempts to obtain US military technology. Companies and governments from a total of 63 nations, many of them allies, have been detected spying on US defense contractors. Targets include information technology, sensors, lasers, aerospace systems, weapons, energetic materials, and electronics. Components and subsystems are a specific target, indicating that the espionage is aimed at upgrading existing weapons and equipment.--Stephen V Cole
August 10, 2001; For some forty years, space satellites have been the key American strategic reconnaissance tool. America began designing and building recon satellites in the 1950s. This was the Corona (called Discover for public consumption) series, using film capsules ejected for pick up on earth. The first launch (Discover 1) was in January, 1959. It failed. Discover 13 and 14, in August, 1959, finally succeeded. The cameras in these satellites had a 7.5 meters (25 feet) resolution (items 25 feet or larger could be made out.) This was very expensive, as once the satellite ran out of film, it became space junk. The Corona satellites kept going up, with rapidly improving versions of the Key Hole camera. By 1972, when the Corona program ended, it was getting a resolution of 1.8 meters. Satellites dropping film canisters were used by the United States until the early 1980s. During the Corona program, over a million photos were taken from space. Many of these pictures were of large areas, so accurate maps could be made of otherwise inaccessible places like China and the Soviet Union.
Corona was replaced by all electronic photo satellites. The first, KH-11 was launched in 1976. By the mid 1980s, all U.S. recon satellites were using, in effect, digital cameras. Resolution continued to get better through the 1980s and 90s. Today it's about 100mm (some say less, but the exact figure is classified, so anyone who knows it and blabs it gets arrested). Better software and hardware made it possible to get photos more quickly and without misleading information. The latest KH-11's (sometimes called KH-12) also have an infrared sensor, enabling them to see through clouds. The latest KH-11s also carry more fuel, allowing an useful life of up to eight years. Earlier model KH birds only lasted a year or two before their fuel ran out (or something broke down.) The current KH satellites can also be serviced by the Space Shuttle.
In the early 1980s, the first radar satellite (Indigo) went up. This was soon renamed Lacrosse and today they are called Vega. With a resolution of about 1.5 meters, they can operate day or night and in any weather.
There are many other types of military satellites up there. Most well known are the 24 GPS birds that provide navigation information. These first went up in the late 1980s. Since the early 1970s, there have been DSP (Defense Support System) infrared satellites in high orbit, looking for ballistic missile launches. There are currently five DSP birds up there. During the 1991 Gulf War, the DSP satellites proved sensitive enough to detect SCUD missile launches in Iraq. There are also over a dozen military communications and weather satellites in orbit.
And then there are the secret satellite programs. Most of these apparently have to do with electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare. Astronomy buffs have spotted some of these, in some cases clusters of unidentified satellites. America has the largest fleet of military satellites, both in terms of quantity and quality. It’s a formidable military asset.
August 5, 2001; Armies say they practice how they would deal with gathering intelligence in wartime, and maybe they do. But the experience in the Balkans has demonstrated that one should never underestimate the unexpected. One of the sources of the unexpected has been the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.) These little aircraft are controlled from the ground, or simply programmed to fly a search pattern and come home. They cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars each. Occasionally they are lost in action, usually because some component (engine, electronics, Etc.) fails in flight. Recently, an American UAV was lost in Kosovo. There was a communications problem, so the UAV was ordered to shut down and a deploy a bright orange parachute and land. There was no way to find it with a built in beacon, because of the electronic problem. There wasn't enough manpower available to beat the bushes for it, so a decision was made to offer a reward over local radio stations for the UAVs return. Oops, it seems the UAV went down in the German sector. After some bureaucratic burlesque with the Germans over who could do what, the Germans had the local radio stations offer a $45 reward (100 Deutchmarks) for the UAVs return. No response at first, and there ensued a debate over whether a photo or detailed description of the UAV should be released. The fact that the UAV was not top secret and pictures of it had appeared in the media eventually shut down that discussion. Then there was a lot of angst about releasing the ID number painted on the UAV. How this info would impact NATO security in the Balkans was never fully explained. Then someone realized that a radio announcer broadcast the fact that the UAV was worth over a million dollars (true) and contained "advanced technology" (not true.) Now everyone got nervous about some crafty Kosovar peasant finding the UAV in his cabbage patch and taking it to the nearest gang of Albanian gangsters to explore export options (China?, Iraq?). And the problem still remained with the Germans, who went about finding the UAV as they felt best, not as the Americans wanted. Before the Intel pukes achieved a mass mental breakdown, the UAV was found. But this was not the end of the UAV adventures, as the coordination problem between the NATO allies in Kosovo was still not solved. This was driven home shortly thereafter when a French UAV, flying a predetermined search pattern, just missed a helicopter carrying several American generals. The French saw no need to let the Americans know that a French UAV was going to over fly the American sector. After all, isn't it common knowledge that UAVs have the right of way?
