Defense Support Program
Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites and associated ground facilities are an aging system of space-based infrared sensors that detect the intense heat of missile launches and nuclear explosions. They do not form images, but are electro-optical MASINT sensors that measure the intensity and wavelengths of radiation in a grid of locations on earth (i.e., spectroscopic MASINT), based on an idea first proposed in 1948[1] In the program, the first satellite was launched in 1970 and the last in 2007.[2] They are due to be replaced by two variants of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), one in geosynchronous orbit as is DSP [3]
Their precessor was the prototype Missile Defense Alarm System (MIDAS).[4] DSP has gone through a variety of names, as has the SBIRS system. Renamed called the Satellite Early Warning System (SEWS) in 1999, DSP remains the best-known name, as the descendant of several generations of spacecraft,[5] which are operated by the Fourteenth Air Force. Originally, DSP was known by the classified name Program 949, and, after that became known, Program 647.
The fUSSR/Russian Prognoz spacecraft has been described, by US sources, as having similar capabilities to DSP.[6]
Originally intended to detect the intense heat of an ICBM launch, this system proved useful at a theater level in 1990-1991. It detected the launch of Iraqi SS-1 SCUD missiles in time to give early warning to potential targets.
References
- ↑ J.A. Curcio and J.A. Sanderson (26 July 1948), Further Investigations of the Radiation from Rocket Motor Flames, in Jeffrey Richelson, Space-Based Early Warning: From MIDAS to DSP to SBIR: Last DSP satellite to be launched tomorrow, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Naval Research Laboratory, NRL Report No. N-3327
- ↑ Jeffrey Richelson, ed. (9 November 2007), Space-Based Early Warning: From MIDAS to DSP to SBIR: Last DSP satellite to be launched tomorrow, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Electronic Briefing Book No. 235
- ↑ Steven Clark (10 December 2009), "First SBIRS early warning satellite delayed until 2011", Spaceflight Now
- ↑ Harold Brown (25 June 1962s), Memorandum for the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Research and Development), Subject: MIDAS System, in Jeffrey Richelson, Space-Based Early Warning: From MIDAS to DSP to SBIR: Last DSP satellite to be launched tomorrow, National Security Archive, George Washington University
- ↑ Jeffrey Richelson (1999), America's Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security, University of Kansas Press
- ↑ Interagency OPSEC Support Staff (May 1996), Operations Security Intelligence Threat Handbook, Section 3, Adversary Foreign Intelligence Operations