Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Based on its experiences with the launching of short-range theater missiles by Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) concluded that expanded theater missile warning capabilities were needed, and it began planning for an improved infrared satellite sensor capability that would support both long-range strategic and short-range theater ballistic missile ...
A MIDAS Infrared Sensor. The Missile Defense Alarm System, or MIDAS, was a United States Air Force Air Defense Command system of 12 early-warning satellites that provided limited notice of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile launches between 1960 and 1966.
It complemented the geosynchronous Defense Support Program, the Space-Based Infrared System, and other overhead non-imaging infrared (ONIR) systems [15] [16] and provided tracking cues to systems on the surface. The STSS program was developed in phases, the first of which was the launch of two demonstrator satellites.
The SBIRS satellites are a replacement for the Defense Support Program early warning system. They are intended to detect ballistic missile launches, as well as various other events in the infrared spectrum, including nuclear explosions , aircraft flights, space object entries and reentries, wildfires and spacecraft launches .
Tip and cue systems utilize a network of satellites equipped with complementary sensor technologies to track moving objects in real-time. The method involves detecting a target with a primary sensor, such as an infrared or photographic sensor, which then cues secondary sensors on the same or other satellites for more detailed monitoring.
The first satellites were designed for the Space Development Agency and outfitted with advanced infrared sensors meant to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. [13] In 2021, Starshield had entered a $1.8 billion classified contract with the U.S. government, revealed in 2023, [ 1 ] to construct hundreds of spy satellites for ...
The satellites are in geosynchronous orbits, and are equipped with infrared sensors operating through a wide-angle Schmidt camera. The entire satellite spins so that the linear sensor array in the focal plane scans over the Earth six times every minute. [2] Typically, DSP satellites were launched on Titan IVB boosters with Inertial Upper Stages.
As opposed to an ordinary forward looking infrared system, an IRST system will actually scan the space around the aircraft similarly to the way in which mechanically (or even electronically) steered radars work. The exception to the scanning technique is the F-35's DAS, which stares in all directions simultaneously, and automatically detects ...