DefenseTech Military.com
  • Categories
  • Full Archives
  • Monthly Archives
  • About Defense Tech
Subscribe to RSS

About Defense Tech

Defense Tech exam­ines the inter­sec­tion of tech­nol­ogy and defense from every angle and pro­vides analy­sis on what’s ahead.

Tip Us Off

Tip for Defense Tech?

SEND IT!

It’s Confidential!

Categories

  • 'Canes
  • Afghan Update
  • Ammo and Munitions
  • Armor
  • Around the Globe
  • Av Week Extra
  • Axe in Iraq (and Elsewhere)
  • Bizarro
  • Blimps
  • Blog Bidness
  • Body Armor Blues
  • Bomb Squad
  • Brownshoes in Action
  • Bubbleheads, etc.
  • Cammo Green
  • Catch the "Buzz"
  • Chem-Bio
  • Civilian Apps
  • Cloak and Dagger
  • Commandos
  • Comms
  • Contingency Ops
  • Cops and Robbers
  • Cyber-warfare
  • Data Diving
  • Defense Tech Poll
  • Defense Tech Radio
  • Dissent Tech
  • Door Kickers
  • Drones
  • DT Administrivia
  • Eat DT's Dust
  • Extra! Extra!
  • Eye on China
  • Fast Movers
  • FCS Watch
  • Fire for Effect
  • FOS Files
  • Friday Funnies
  • Gadgets and Gear
  • Going Green
  • Grand Ole Osprey
  • Ground Vehicles
  • Guns
  • Homeland Security
  • In the Weeds with Eric
  • Info War
  • Iraq Diary
  • Jarhead Jazz
  • JSF Watch
  • Just War Theories
  • Lasers and Ray Guns
  • Less-lethal
  • Logistics
  • Los Alamos and Labs
  • M4 Monopoly
  • Medic!
  • Mercs
  • Missiles
  • Money Money Money
  • Most Wanted
  • MRAP Edge
  • Net-Centric
  • Nukes
  • Old Skool
  • Our Shrinking Planet
  • Planes, Copters, Blimps
  • Podcast
  • Politricks
  • Polmar's Perspective
  • Popular Mechanics
  • Rapid Fire
  • Raptor Watch
  • Red Team
  • Retro-Futuro
  • Robots
  • Roll Your Own
  • Sabra Tech
  • Ships and Subs
  • Snipertech
  • Soldier Systems
  • Space
  • Special Ops
  • Star Wars
  • Strategery
  • Stray Trons
  • Tactical Development
  • Terror Tech
  • The Deadlies
  • The Defense Biz
  • The Peoples' Site
  • The Sunday Paper
  • The Tanker Tango
  • The View from Av Week
  • Those Nutty Norks
  • Training and Sims
  • Trimble on the Case
  • Uncategorized
  • Video Lounge
  • War Update
  • Ward'z Wonderz
  • You can run…

Archives

  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004
  • April 2004
  • March 2004
  • February 2004
  • January 2004
  • December 2003
  • November 2003
  • October 2003
  • September 2003
  • August 2003
  • July 2003
  • June 2003
  • May 2003
  • April 2003
  • March 2003
  • February 2003
  • January 2003

Home » Space » Laser Sat’s Big Pipes

Laser Sat’s Big Pipes

“Todays mil­i­tary satel­lites “take about two min­utes to trans­fer a sim­ple photo,” Defense News notes. “That same image could take about 23 sec­onds on the next-​​generation Advanced Extremely High Frequency satel­lites, which will start to go up in the next few years.“
tsat_md.jpgThe third wave of U.S. orbiters, sched­uled for launch in the mid-​​2010s, “could move the image in far less than a sec­ond.” And they’d use lasers to do it.

Such blind­ing speed could finally bring to life the Pentagons visions of net­worked sen­sors and shoot­ers unmanned aer­ial vehi­cles, Joint Strike Fighters, war­ships and troops on the ground trad­ing instant images and video any­where in the world.
The Air Force’s Transformational Satellite System (TSAT) pro­gram got off the ground about two years ago.. Boeing and Lockheed, which each have half-​​billion-​​dollar con­tracts to develop ini­tial TSAT sys­tems, are com­pet­ing for a final pro­duc­tion con­tract to be awarded in a year or so. Both have reported ini­tial suc­cess in basic laser com­mu­ni­ca­tions and other fea­tures.
TSAT will offer jam-​​proof radio and laser con­nec­tions to com­pact sur­face receivers. Instead of lug­ging around brick-​​sized satel­lite phones, troops will sport BlackBerries that deliver space intel­li­gence on the run.


Sounds great. But the Air Force fig­ures it’ll take $12-$18 bil­lion to put the five-​​satellite con­stel­la­tion in orbit. And, given the mil­i­tary space program’s track record of leg­en­dar­ily large screw-​​ups, it’s far from clear whether Congress will pony up for TSAT.

During the 2005 bud­get process, law­mak­ers cut $300 mil­lion from the $775 mil­lion request. In 2006, the Air Force is ask­ing for $836 mil­lion. The House Armed Services Committee has rec­om­mended only about half that be approved, while the Senate Armed Services would like a cut of about $200 million.

THERE’S MORE: The Air Force is adding four more anti-​​satellite jam­mers to its arse­nal of orbiter stop­pers, Inside Defense reports.

Share |

August 30th, 2005 | Space | 14642 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2005/08/30/laser-sats-big-pipes/Laser+Sat%27s+Big+Pipes2005-08-30+05%3A00%3A16noahmax You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

« « Rapid Fire 8/​29/​05 | Giant Blimp on the Rise » »

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

  1. Byron Skinner says:
    August 30, 2005 at 1:10 pm

    Good Morning,
    I just love all this techie stuff. I have just one prob­lem, our cur­rent enemy, Islamic Terrorist don’t have a sin­gle satel­lite, or an Air Force or for that mat­ter even an Army. My ques­tion is what good is all of this in fight­ing the GWOT?
    All the bad guys like bin Laden, al Zarqawi and al Sadar are still free men who with reg­u­lar­ity thumb their noises at the United States and then kill a few Americans or Europeans. Wouldn’t it be a bet­ter invest­ment to get these guys the to blow money on satel­lite pro­grams?
    The sad fact is that our AN/​PRC119B Field Radio doesn’t work in urban areas, but “El Cheapo” Walkie Talkies from Wal-​​Mart do just fine. The AN/​PRC117 Satellite Radio that Spec. Ops. use to broad­cast need a sta­tion­ary posi­tion to grab a satel­lite but a Cowboy out on the range in Wynoming can talk to a com­mody trader in Chicago about the price of beef while rid­ing aroun on his horse.
    What’s with the Military?
    What good is a third wave of orbiters if the guy on the other end doesn’t get the mes­sage.
    Over on another dicus­sion a “Lt. G.” from the 1st. Cav. Div. states we have the best Military and can defeat any­body in the world, so why can’t we take out a few hun­dred ter­ror­ists (num­ber cour­sity of Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld), how will $18 Billon is new space hard­ware stop Americans dieing at the rate of bet­ter then one a day from IED’s?
    Shouldn’t we be fight­ing the war we are in instead of the one we want to fight?
    ALLONS,
    Byron Skinner
    “Stewart“s Platoon”

    Reply
  2. Chris says:
    August 30, 2005 at 1:34 pm

    Byron,
    The key word here is “trans­for­ma­tion”. The mil­i­tary is trans­form­ing — very slowly — from one designed to fight the USSR to one in where sol­diers “Instead of lug­ging around brick-​​sized satel­lite phones, troops will sport BlackBerries that deliver space intel­li­gence on the run”.
    Is the tran­si­tion going per­fectly? Of course not. But is it mov­ing ahead? Absolutely.
    But at the end of the day, the GWOT is not about a cou­ple of indi­vid­u­als. It is about defeat­ing an ever chang­ing net­work of, well, evil. We will need our mil­i­tary to be more adapt­able than the enemy. This will let them do that job.
    We are doing the best we can today and even bet­ter tomorrow.

    Reply
  3. Nick says:
    August 30, 2005 at 4:05 pm

    I just wanted to say that I pre­fer “net­work of evil” to “axis of evil.” It’s so much more Arquilla-​​esque.

    Reply
  4. Greg says:
    August 30, 2005 at 5:41 pm

    Might i just add, if we can believe CNN then our army has come very close quite a few times to tak­ing out our cur­rent ene­mies and “just missed them”. With this sys­tem, “just missed them” becomes a much more nar­rowed time frame.

    Reply
  5. Henry says:
    August 30, 2005 at 8:41 pm

    With satel­lites that can see tire tracks 2 or 3 days old and can see the body heat of a bird why can’t they use them to find our ene­mys? We put them in space to be used, use them to help our troops.

    Reply
  6. stephen russell says:
    August 30, 2005 at 9:39 pm

    Can we priv­i­tize some of this comm for the Public, nice. to get 23 sec data down­stream LIVE.
    Imagine the impli­ca­tions.
    Big $$$$$$- hello Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, for Consumer cel­phone users.

    Reply
  7. Gary Freeman says:
    August 31, 2005 at 2:31 am

    $12-$18 Billion for new satell­ties! In the mean­time our vets can’t access Health care, med­ical as well as psy­cho­log­i­cal. It appears to me that our lead­ers speak with forked tongue. Support or troops ? For what period of time, min­utes, hours, days? Thousands have served their coun­try hon­or­ably, don’t they deserve to be remem­bered after leav­ing the sevice. How about spend­ing some of that $12– to $18 Billion on our vets.

    Reply
  8. Byron Skinner says:
    August 31, 2005 at 2:43 pm

    Good Morning Steve,
    Although the ori­gional story has abso­lutly noth­ing to do with Veterans Healthcare, I think you are miss­ing the point in regards to V.A. Healthcare fund­ing.
    I will men­tion the obovi­ous first, last Spring the V.A. Healthcare System claimed a $1.5 Billion oper­a­tional short­fall for the cur­rent bud­get year. At that time a Congressional hear­ing was con­ducted and out­raged was exprssed by every­body from President Bush on down to the newist Congressperson, all pledged to do some­thing now. Well the Current bud­get year has only thirty days left in it and all con­cerned are on Vacation, mean­while noth­ing has been done.
    Does this effect your per­sonal health­care, no not in the short term. This short fall is being made up out of oper­a­tional bud­gets. But here is the prob­lem.
    The cur­rent V.A. mas­ter plan (from the Reagan Admin. of the 1980’s) calls for about 18 Million Veterans by the year 2012. The cur­rent pro­jec­tion includ­ing Veterans of the GWOT has indi­cated there will be at least 26 Million liv­ing Veterans by 2012.
    In short President Bush is mak­ing more Veterans then who are exit­ing the sys­tem while slash­ing V.A. funds. Not count­ing the $1.5 Billion short­fall in the cur­rent this admin­is­tra­tion since 2001 when they took office have “Removed” from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Congressionaly allo­cated bud­gets in excess of $7.5 Billion.
    I don’t think it takes a “Crystal Ball” to per­dict some huge prob­lems with Veterans Healthcare just over the hori­zon in the not to dis­tant future.
    Oh and by the way Steve, I have over 200% accul­mated “Combat Related Disabilities” and have been in the V.A. Health System for over 39 years now.
    ALLONS,
    Byron Skinner
    “Stewart’s Platoon”

    Reply
  9. Dayon says:
    September 1, 2005 at 2:31 pm

    Back on topic. It was asked how this will help in against IEDs. The answer: with near real­time SatIntel, we’ll be able to mobi­lize peo­ple as “watch­ers” who nor­mally won’t be able to play a com­bat role but who will now be able to be set as a high ground guard to watch out for you, to see a ambush ahead of you, enemy move­ment, or even set a watch on an area to see if ter­ror­ists are plant­ing a road­side bomb. Yes, con­siev­ably, your par­ents could be watch­ing over you and look­ing out for you from above. The res­o­lu­tion with the next gen photo gear can be that good. Yes, it is still being devel­oped, but I like the idea of another set of eyes watch­ing my back in a com­bat zone, don’t you?

    Reply
  10. John says:
    December 7, 2007 at 7:40 am

    Hey there skin­ner… The war in Iraq is not the only war we are fight­ing. We need to stay up on tech­nol­ogy to pro­tect our­selves from coun­tries like China and Russia who are con­stantly checkin our defenses for vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. If china were able to jam our satel­lites, our entire coun­try may be immo­bi­lized.
    This tech­nol­ogy is of high importance.

    Reply
  11. Shaiya money says:
    August 8, 2008 at 1:43 am

    As the war waged on, the Goddess Etaine became depressed with her failed cre­ation and became weak. Her beauty faded along with her power Shaiya money. Taking advan­tage of the sit­u­a­tion, the Dumianas ended the Goddess

    Reply
  12. buy 2moons dil says:
    August 13, 2008 at 11:15 pm

    do not because some small things to abuse some peo­ple, do you know that if all peo­ple like this, then can the game still get the peo­ple happy, so I hope in the game we can become friends, do not because in order to buy 2moons dil then affray, it will affect other play­ers mood, all peo­ple play the game all hope can get the happy, so I really hope that all peo­ple can change their mood, staid­ness deal with the game.

    Reply
  13. cabal money says:
    August 13, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    at this time the boy thought that the girl crack a joke so said that if you give me some cabal money I would imme­di­ately fell in love with you, the girl was very happy and said that do not act shamelessly

    Reply
  14. dofus gold says:
    August 13, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    in my heart is not, you are very impor­tant, but now say any­thing was later, you already left, although now I have enough dofus gold, but all things were changed, if in the game only have myself, then I think I will leave too.

    Reply
  15. cheap eve isk says:
    August 13, 2008 at 11:22 pm

    Of course, if you want more real­ize EVE, a novice tuto­r­ial is a good choice too. So more and more peo­ple search which place can buy the cheap eve isk.

    Reply
  16. buy flyff penya says:
    August 13, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    I can spend many money to buy flyff penya, I can do not have lunch and sleep. Play the game can look the peo­ple diathe­sis, but I only know that we will not attack unless we are attacked

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree

    Most Popular Posts
    • What Does this Handle Do?
    • Marines Quiet About Brutal New Weapon
    • Starship Troopers Meets G.I. Joe
    • Dowd's Bogus Grief Deficit
    • Semi-auto Grenade Thrower
    • Adapting Women to Subs
    • Fort Hood Rampage
    • Keep it Simple
    • Mystery Drone Revealed
    • REPLACEMENT ARM, GOOD AS NEW
    Recent Comments
    • Fort Hood Rampage
      "And no, the Koran does not say anything about killing...
      bdwilcox
    • Fort Hood Rampage
      When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to...
      DualityOfMan
    • Fort Hood Rampage
      Fascism? Last time I heard, the fascists promoted christianity. Or,...
      DualityOfMan
    • Semi-auto Grenade Thrower
      I see an M16 firing, and I see a 40 mm grenade launcher...
      DualityOfMan
    • Fort Hood Rampage
      "I'd say go read some history on fascist ideology and then compare...
      Sam
    • Semi-auto Grenade Thrower
      No. I am not saying a grenade launcher on a rifle is a hoax. I...
      Zandor
    • Semi-auto Grenade Thrower
      For someone who trashes all the readers of the blog you sure do...
      a1189
    • Market for Acoustic Defense Systems Heats Up
      These devices vibrate tissue and bone not just...
      WJS
    • Semi-auto Grenade Thrower
      So are you saying the grenade launcher is a hoax or the M-16?...
      WJS
    • Fort Hood Rampage
      Dear Cannon Fodder; Only politically correct patriots should be accepted...
      Zandor
    Recent Articles
    • Semi-​​auto Grenade Thrower
    • Market for Acoustic Defense Systems Heats Up
    • Fort Hood Rampage
    • Keep it Simple
    • Airbag Defense
    • Dowd’s Bogus Grief Deficit
    • Did Someone Move the Furniture Around?
    • Lockheed Says Sbirs Still on Track For 2010
    • What Does this Handle Do?
    • Adapting Women to Subs
  • Channels: Military.com | Military Benefits | Military News | Off Duty | Join the Military | Military Education | Veteran Jobs | Military Money | Military Deals | Military Family | Military Community
  • Military.com Network: Military.com | MilBlogging | Defense Tech | DoD Buzz | SpouseBuzz | Fred's Place | GI Bill Express
  • Services: Army | Navy | Air Force | Marine Corps | Coast Guard | National Guard | Military Spouse
  • About Military.com About Us | Advertise With Us | Press | Affiliate Program | Monster Network | Help | Feedback | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | © 2009 Military Advantage