Department of Defense is building secret satellite network via SpaceX

“One of the Soviet observation satellites pointed its cameras towards the Pacific Ocean. As expected, in the region indicated by intelligence reports, the USS Enterprise Combat Group headed south. Once the route was confirmed, the Russians breathed a sigh of relief, the Enterprise would not reinforce Taiwan’s defense.”

“At Big E’s Combat Information Center, the Captain waited for the go-ahead from one of his officers. ‘All clear, Captain. The satellites have already left our region.’ ‘OK, tell the group to return to its original course, full steam ahead to the West.’”

The trick is very old, but it was effective for a long time. The orbits of spy satellites are well known, it was common to “sanitize” air bases, hiding planes and prototypes, when enemy satellites were passing over them. At sea, ship formations changed course to confuse analysts on the other side.

This happens because satellites in geostationary orbit were unable to identify small objects such as ships, naval observation satellites had to orbit much lower, which reduces their range, to the sadness of flat-earthers.

To better understand the problem: Throw your keys on the living room floor. Easy to find, right? You look, see the whole room, find the keys right away. But unlike your living room, the Earth is not flat. The curvature prevents you from seeing beyond a certain distance. To understand the concept of line of sight, take a toilet paper tube, look through it straight down. Now go looking for the keys.

The only chance for a satellite in low orbit to be useful would be for there to be a bunch of them, which is why to this day the US Department of Defense has preferred to invest in billion-dollar satellites in high orbits.

With the War in Ukraine and the use of the Starlink constellation as an essential communications tool and unorthodox means of drone control, the Pentagon (and every decent military on the planet) widened their eyes, seeing the advantages of having not one or two , but thousands of satellites over the battlefield.

Seeing this interest, SpaceX announced Starshield, a satellite militarization program following the philosophy of Starlink, lots of small, cheap satellites in low orbit.

The low orbit is in theory a disadvantage, a Starlink satellite takes about 100 seconds to cross from horizon to horizon, but there are thousands of them, so there is always a satellite over the target. And this immense quantity also makes anti-satellite weapons, which are extremely expensive and rare, unfeasible. It is unfeasible to destroy a constellation that, with Starship, launched more than 200 satellites at once.

Now Reuters has reported that SpaceX signed a secret $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office, the US Government agency responsible for spy satellites. The contract provides for the construction of a constellation of hundreds of spy observation satellites.

The Laws of Orbital Mechanics are implacable, a satellite can take several days to pass over the same point on Earth again. On this website you can animate the orbit of the International Space Station, and see the effect. With thousands of satellites, this is no longer a problem.

SpaceX is keeping its mouth shut, after all, a juicy contract like this is not something we go around commenting on, it will irritate the customer.

On Starlink’s March 26th launch, two of the satellites were classified as “secret,” likely part of the project with the NRO, but… the contract was signed in 2021. SpaceX isn’t usually this slow. The evidence points to something beautifully obvious in the world of espionage:

The question is simple: How does an elephant hide in a strawberry field? A: Paint his nails red. People will see what they want to see, what they are used to seeing.

It has been some time since SpaceX has shown the release of Starlink satellites into orbit. We no longer even have the rare moments when we can see satellites for a few moments. Who guarantees that all satellites are innocent Starlinks?

If I were an NRO strategist (and I will neither deny nor confirm this) I would boil the heads of the Russians and Chinese, sticking my satellites between the Starlink satellites, launching several, occupying normal orbits, even using the identity of Starlink satellites.

To anyone on the outside, including regulatory agencies, it would be Starlinks. When in fact they are Starshield satellites. It is not difficult to imagine that SpaceX has even replicated the Starlink functionality, just adding the extra sensors from the spy satellites.

Without knowing who is who, it is virtually impossible to defend yourself from the NRO’s prying eyes.

What will be the future effect of this? Virtually all ancient battles would have had different endings if the generals had been able to see what was over the next hill. Pearl Harbor would never have happened if satellites had accompanied Japanese forces. The invasion of Ukraine was practically covered in real time, with all Russian troop movements appearing on Tiktok. Imagine what the NRO satellites weren’t seeing.

Drones and instant communication have completely changed modern warfare. In World War I, cameras were first used on airplanes. A candango literally pulled a camera out of the aircraft and photographed enemy trenches.

In the Second World War much better equipment used large format films, taking stereoscopic photos that would be analyzed by experts, this was very good from a strategic point of view (from the Greek strategosin English strategy) and used to plan campaigns, but it did not serve as something tactical, of immediate use.

Today a drone enters a house looking for enemies. We have real-time vision of the battlefield.

With a Starshield constellation, the Pentagon will have Vision Beyond Reach, stitching photos, or more likely video in real time, covering the region it wants. It’s any strategist’s wet dream, information on a global scale to plan large-scale actions, and localized real-time information that can be immediately passed on to commanders in the field.

Is it annoying to see something like Starlink being used for military purposes? Of course, it touches our idealistic side, but the people at SpaceX have bills to pay, and would you refuse a check for US$1.8 billion? I am not.