The U.S. Army plans to build and launch into orbit a constellation of satellites for the first time in roughly 50 years. And it plans to build the cluster of eight miniature communications satellites within as little as nine months, defense officials told Military.com.
The roughly $5 million effort is part of the Army’s commitment to what is known as Operationally Responsive Space. The joint program, based at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., was created in May 2007 after years of vigorous prodding by Congress to get the U.S. military to change how it conceives of, builds and flies satellites.
For the Army, this is “a pathfinder project to fulfill an urgent need for beyond line of sight communications capability,” said James Lee, chief of strategy and policy for Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala.
Lee’s office set up a task force in March to decide how the Army should tackle the deployment of space assets. And the money for the service’s satellite effort is coming from Army coffers, Lee added.
The requirement for the bantam-weight sats — which measure about 30 inches square and weigh around five pounds — was generated by a combatant commander whom Lee declined to identify. But you can get some idea who it is by the mission he described for the so-called “cubesats.”
The satellites should provide communications for Army units below the brigade level operating in parts of the world where the military has no current secure satellite communications, such as Africa, Lee explained.
The only services available in those regions come from commercial vendors, he said, and they’re often not American-owned.
In addition to providing needed communications links, the effort would also help build the Army’s overall space capabilities, Lee said.
“We feel it’s important to have experience at an engineering level to build space capabilities, even if it’s a simple as a cubesat,” he said. Army engineers will work alongside designers from a Huntsville-based company called MilTec, which will build the first six satellites. Space and Missile Defense Command will build the last two.
“We believe we have the expertise but many of our scientists don’t have hands-on experience,” Lee said.
All eight satellites will be launched together, either on a Minotaur or Falcon rocket. Minotaur, a four-stage solid fuel rocket that uses decommissioned Minuteman missile rocket motors, is built by Orbital Sciences Corp. The Falcon 1 is built by PayPal millionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX Company.
The Minotaur has flown seven times and the Falcon has launched twice but has not successfully lofted a payload into orbit.
The satellites will fly either in a swarm or will be flown in a loose formation. And Lee said the Army wants members of its space cadre to do the flying.
A senior Defense Department official who tracks space programs was supportive of the Army’s plans, calling the move “great news.” And in a sign of just how much the Air Force has dominated space systems and operations, the official noted that, “a little competition never hurt anyone.”
And Lee was careful to avoid offense: “We don’t really want to replace the Navy or the Air Force.” But with today’s strategic realities, and the limited resources currently available in orbit, the Army wants to make sure it plays its part.
– Colin Clark
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Given the extreme dependance on maintaining constant communications these days, a bit of redundancy with this new system is a good thing regardless of how many toes it might tread on.
God forbid the Army provides for Joe to communicate at the expense of the Air Forces reputation.$5 million? Thats like a seat cushion in the F-22 right?
Is I just me or would they be doing this because the AirForce has created a bunch of Know-it-all Generals who do not respond to the needs of the other services?
So much for “Playbing well with others.….”
Is I just me or would they be doing this because the AirForce has created a bunch of Know-it-all Generals who do not respond to the needs of the other services?
So much for “Playing well with others.….”
I was active Navy for over eleven years. Then, later, I was in the Army NG for a year. The members of these two services have radically different thought processes founded in their radically different missions. This is the dominant reason I left the ANG.
My point: While an Air Force general may “know” that an Army unit needs communications in some out-of-the-way location. It would take some convincing for me to believe that he would fully appreciate all of the nuances of that need.
Besides, where is it written that only the Air Force controls space? Where is it written that the Army is the only service to be denied access to space? In 1947, when the modern tasks for the services was defined, no one was in space and space is not mentioned in those definitions.
Perhaps it is time for the Army to bring their unique view and purpose to the “final frontier.“
Certainly a small cluster of eight communication satellites is hardly a major revolution against the current paradyme.
We need backup & the Army should since it does know Battlefield missiles anyway.
Why not have another Launch source vs the AF.
Army can launch support vehicles while the AF shoots up the Big ones etc.
This is actually a very good step from the army considering the criticism of too much reliance on satelites for day to day military activities. The best thing about these satelites is that they are CHEAP and SIMPLE meaning that if one or more were to fail its not a major break down in your capability to wage war, either rely on the back up satelites already up there or launch some new ones.
A great response to a specific countries announcement that they can shoot down satelites now, because this says that, as far as the army is concerned, the satelites are not the weak link in the chain any more, if one or more were to be lost its will no longer have the dramitic effect on army offensive capabilites as before.
Good Evening Guys,
Good for the Army, cheate satellites that provide data and communications at the sub-battalion levels.
Like close air support the AF wants to dictate to the troops on the ground. As long as the pentagon gets there daily ration of war pictures thats all that important.
The squad and platoon leaders who can’t talk to each other in built up areas because Harris Communications who build their AN/PRC 117C and 119’s won’t build sets that work beyond 6Km. and are NLOS.
ALLONS,
Btron Skinner
eight sats, five million dollars. Five million. That’s probably an order of magnitude less than it would cost to shoot all of them down. Sounds like a winning program to me.
Cheap, replenishable microsats are the way to go. The Air Force and NRO model of expensive, one of a kind satellite are a drain on resources, and offer nothing for surge replenishment capabilities if they are lost.
Why not, the Army has a Navy too. They must be know it alls.
DC2
Skinner,
Careful or you’re going to reveal your ignorance to everyone instead of just the 25C/2841/2E1X3 MOS’s. I’ll save you the time. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Is the program being managed out of Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M (Operationally Responsive Space) or out of Huntsville (SMDC)?