A billion here and several billion there, pretty soon some technology works.
Not.
Please dismiss the idea of the all-seeing eye-in-the-sky providing real time weapons launch control. And even if they could provide the data, what system would coordinate and synchronize the fires? It doesn’t exist. Satellite images can only provide coarse location while the satellite flight over that region. At least now, only China has one satellite at geosynchronous orbit (22,236 miles above earth) has Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capable to take workable image on earth.
Targeting, and by extension, actionable targeting requires much more resolution and sophisticated synchronization than is evident in the press releases from the Space Force.
BTW, only the US government could have an agency acronym of NGA (don’t say that around the watercooler or coffee machine at work, the HR harridans will fly out of the gargoyle palaces).
China with the luxury of being a regional hegemon is making better advances:
As of the end of 2021, China’s ISR satellite fleet contained more than 260 systems—a quantity second only to the United States, and nearly doubling China’s in-orbit systems since 2018. The PLA owns and operates about half of the world’s ISR systems, most of which could support monitoring, tracking, and targeting of U.S. and allied forces worldwide, especially throughout the Indo-Pacific region. These satellites also allow the PLA to monitor potential regional flashpoints, including the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea.
Recent improvements to China’s space-based ISR capabilities emphasize the development, procurement, and use of increasingly capable satellites with digital camera technology as well as space-based radar for all-weather, 24-hour coverage. These improvements increase China’s monitoring capabilities—including observation of U.S. aircraft carriers,
expeditionary strike groups, and deployed air wings. Space capabilities will enhance potential PLA military operations farther from the Chinese coast. These capabilities are being augmented with electronic reconnaissance satellites that monitor radar and radio transmissions.
https://www.defense.gov/Spotlights/2023-China-Military-Power-Report/
The Space Farce is on the job:
Satellites equipped with Air Moving Target Indicators (AMTI), which would send precise tracking data to “shooters” on the ground, at sea and in the air, would be a new capability — joining the Space Force’s joint program with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to develop Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) satellites that track vehicles and ships.
“The adversary has become very good at pushing the lines of battle further and further out away from their shores, and have become very good at denying oversight of their territory. As they’ve done that, we’ve had to go higher and higher to get the same perspective of what’s going on on the battlefield,” Guetlein explained. “So, as we push to GMTI — that’s your larger moving targets — we also know we need to get after air moving targets. So we are starting to invest in those studies now, and in those conversations.”
Up to now, Space Force leaders have been somewhat coy about their plans for space-based AMTI — a job that currently is accomplished by the Air Force’s fleet of aging E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System. The Air Force in 2022 decided that Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail aircraft would become the primary replacement for the E-3s, and last month finally reached a $2.6 billion deal with the company to acquire the first two E-7 of a planned 26 planes.
By contrast, the Space Force since 2021 has been pushing their case to fill part of the gap in ground tracking/targeting left by the Air Force’s retirement of the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. That campaign has run up against roles and missions related challenges — some of which have yet to be fully resolved — from both the NRO and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). The NRO owns and operates the nation’s spy satellites, while the NGA is responsible for disseminating space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) imagery and analysis to users across the US government.
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/09/space-force-vice-wants-sats-to-track-aircraft-by-early-2030s/
Those E7 Wedgetails by Boeing? They expect a prototype from Boeing in 2027. Boeing even claims they’ll build six a year by the end of the decade. I wouldn’t buy a wheelbarrow from Boing now.Don’t believe it.
The Air Force originally awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to kickstart work on the Wedgetail in 2023, though the deal was signed as an undefinitized contract action as the two parties worked to come to terms. The agreement announced today covers two rapid prototypes, and the Air Force eventually expects to field a fleet of 26 aircraft.
Amid negotiations, Kendall earlier this year turned the heat up on Boeing, telling reporters that the service was “having a hard time” nailing down a price with the planemaker. Complications in ironing out the deal caused the Air Force to postpone procurement funding for the program, though Hunter previously said that he still expects Boeing could deliver the first prototype plane in fiscal year 2027.
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/air-force-strikes-deal-with-boeing-for-e-7-wedgetail/
Pretty good work to get a billion dollars to start the aircraft development without a contract.
What a country!
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