Военные спутники: история и современное состояние.

Artificial satellite used for military purposes

A military satellite is an artificial satellite used for a military purpose. The most common missions are intelligence gathering, navigation and military communications. The first military satellites were photographic reconnaissance missions. Some attempts were made to develop satellite based weapons but this work was halted in 1967 following the ratification of international treaties banning the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in orbit. As of 2013, there are 950 satellites of all types in Earth orbit. It is not possible to identify the exact number of these that are military satellites partly due to secrecy and partly due to dual purpose missions such as GPS satellites that serve both civilian and military purposes. As of December 2018 there are 320 known military or dual use satellites in the sky, half of which are owned by the US, followed by Russia, China and India.

The first military use of satellites was for reconnaissance. In the United States the first formal military satellite programs, Weapon System 117L, was developed in the mid 1950s. Within this program a number of sub programs were developed including Corona. Corona was followed by other programs including Canyon (seven launches between 1968 and 1977), Aquacade and Orion (stated by US Government sources to be extremely large). There have also been a number of subsequent programs including Magnum and Trumpet, but these remain classified and therefore many details remain speculative. The Soviet Union began the Almaz (Алмаз) program in the early 1960s. This program involved placing space stations in Earth orbit as an alternative to satellites. Three stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. Following Salyut 5, the Soviet Ministry of Defence judged in 1978 that the time consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites. In 2015, United States military space units and commercial satellite operator Intelsat became concerned about apparent reconnaissance test maneuvers by the Russian satellite Olymp K, launched in September 2014, when it maneuvered between Intelsat 7 and Intelsat 901, which are located only half a degree from one another in geosynchronous orbit.

The first satellite navigation system, Transit, used by the United States Navy, was tested in 1960. It used a constellation of five satellites and could provide a navigational fix approximately once per hour. During the Cold War arms race, the nuclear threat was used to justify the cost of providing a more capable system. These developments led eventually to the deployment of the Global Positioning System (GPS). The US Navy required precise navigation to enable submarines to get an accurate fix of their positions before they launched their SLBMs. The USAF had requirements for a more accurate and reliable navigation system, as did the United States Army for geodetic surveying for which purpose they had developed the SECOR system. SECOR used ground based transmitters from known locations that sent signals to satellite transponder in orbit. A fourth ground based station, at an undetermined position, could then use those signals to fix its location precisely. The last SECOR satellite was launched in 1969. In 1978, the first experimental Block I GPS satellite was launched and by December 1993, GPS achieved initial operational capability (IOC), indicating a full constellation (24 satellites) was available and providing the Standard Positioning Service (SPS). Full Operational Capability (FOC) was declared by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) in April 1995, signifying full availability of the military's secure Precise Positioning Service (PPS). Since October 1967 satellite based weapons systems have been limited by international treaty to conventional weapons only. Art. IV of the Outer Space Treaty specifically prohibits signatories from installing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit. The treaty became effective on 10 October 1967 and, as of May 2013, 102 countries are parties to the treaty with a further 27 pending full ratification.

Squadron Leader KK Nair, "Space: The Frontiers of Modern Defence", Knowledge World Publishers, New Delhi.