SPACECOM Intelligence

Intelligence Activities for the U.S. Space Command fall under the responsibility of the Directorate of Intelligence, woh is subordinate to the Commander in Chief USSPACECOM. Subordinate to the Director is the Deputy Director for Plans and Programs, and the Deputy Director for Intelligence Operations.

USSPACECOM is comprised of the USAF Space Command, the USN Space Command, and the US Army Space Command and each has their own intelligence activities, all of which are coordinated by the Deputy Directors for Plans and Programss and Intelligence Operations

Plans and Programs

The Directorate for Plans and Programs is tasked with the preperation of intelligence plans and programs supporting the missions of the USSPACECOM.

Intelligence Operations

The USSPACECOM management of the Space Operational Intelligence Center is a key mission of the Intelligence Operations Directorate, as well as the preperation of intelligence estimates and related command input to national intelligence authorities. The Directorate produces the Defense Inteligence Space Order of Battle (DSIOB) for the DOD as well as coordinates and manages intelligence support to the US anti-satellite program.

USAF Space Command

THE USAF maintains its own intelligence function (as does the Army and Navy), tasked with space surveillance,, nuclear detection monitoring, and weather reconnaissance. The 1st Space Wing is responsible for operation of the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite system, and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), and a network of 24 radar and optical sensors sites for space surveillance. The 1st Space Wing also operates the Space Defense Operations Center which is tasked with:

Detecting, tracking, and providing information on space objects by employing all source input data
Providing real-time coordination for status and alert of U.S. and allied space assets to owners, operators, and users of interference, attack, malfunctions, and damage assessment
Providing space object indentification data for all satellites
Generating alert, warning and verification of potentially hostile space-related events that affect space systems survivability, by employing all source data"

The real-time operation of the Space Surveillance Center (SSC) was integrated into the Space Defense Operations Cener (SPADOC) in December of 1985, and falls under the Deputy Director of Space Control, Directorate of Operations, and also is responsible for tasking and alerting of sensors for "tracking support of routine catalog maintenance, space object identification support, space launches and maneuvers, decays, and deorbits, as well as maintains a catalog of orbital characteristics of all observable man-made space objects. This involves the more than 20,000 daily space obeservations to monitor the status of more than 5,400 man-made space objects."

Naval Space Command

Operates the Naval Space Surveillance network (NAVSPASUR), which consists of a non- steerable fan-shaped radar beam, with a 7,500 mile range. This beam extends inan east- west direction, from between San Diego, California to Ft. Stewart, Georgia. The central tranmitter is located at Lake Kicapoo, Texas, with two smaller transmitting stations located at Gila River, Arizona, an Jordan Lake, Alabama. The transmitters are poised along a great circle inclined about thirty-three degrees to the equator.

The receiving network is composed of six receiver stations at:

San Diego, CA
Elephant Butte, New Mexico
Red River, Arkansas
Silver Lake, Mississippi
Hawkinsville, Georgia
Ft. Stewart, Georgia

Data gathered at the receiving stations is transmitted to the NAVSPASUR Headquarters and Computation Center at Dahlgren, Virginia. In October of 1984, NAVSPASUR became the Alternate NORAD Space Surveillance Center, which adds the responsibility for tasking space sensors and space catalog maintenance backup to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

NAVSPASUR also includes two mechanically steered AN/GPS-10 60 foot dish radars, with ranges of 23,000 miles, located at Sna Miguel, Phillipines and Saipan, North Mariana Islands. These two radars are two-thirds of the Pacific Radar Barrier (PACBAR), with the ALTAIR radar at Kwajalein Atoll being the other section.

In addition, two dedicated electro-optical telescopes at Haleakala, Maui, and Malabar, Florida, code named TEAL BLUE and TEAL AMBER respectively. TEAL BLUE is also known as the MOTIF radar which stands for Maui Optical Tracking and Identification Facility. These telescopes are used primarily for near-earth and deep space satellite tracking and space object identification using visual light as well as long-wave infrared imaging.

Other sensors which provide data on a non-primary basis are the BMEWS and PAVE PAWS systems.

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