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Repei

About the Repei project the newspaper "Izvestia" reported referring to the information received in the main headquarters of the Air and Space Forces of Russia. A unique satellite will be able to detect radar stations, radio transmitters, missile launches and radiation of other military equipment. Apparatuses of the "Repei" series will allow the Russian military to receive operational data on the activity of troops in any region of the world. The company "Information Satellite Systems" named after Academician MF. Reshetnev is engaged in the development of satellites. Experts of the company "Russian Space Systems" are responsible for creating a ground control complex.

Experts believe that the launch of the Repei family will significantly increase the potential of the Russian armed forces. The equipment installed on board such devices will be able to intercept information transmitted by the electronic devices of a potential adversary, and spurious electromagnetic radiation. According to available information, now it is planned to develop two satellites - Repei-S and Repei-V. The launch of one of them is scheduled for 2018, but more detailed information has not yet been disclosed.

"Repei", the Arctium Lappa plant also known as burdock, is a herbal grass that is most commonly found in mild climate zones, mostly in North Asia and Europe. It can be found mostly in wet Polish and foothill areas, also forests and shrubs. Its name comes from the Latin name "to catch", which is because of its fruits, which have hooks too easily hanging on the clothes and fur of the animals. The stem of this plant is used in culinary, the leaves - in cosmetics, which develops different shampoos with it in hair loss, lotions in oily skin and other products, roots and seeds - from folk medicine, for various health problems. Already in the 17th century it was found that the herb can be used for kidney stones, fever and gout. The Cherokee and Iroquois tribes used the herb to purify the blood and regulate blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

IHS Markit, a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, released a report 22 June 2017 identifying what appeared to be a previously unknown Russian military satellite program. Analysis of the photograph by Jane’s Intelligence Review identifies what appears to be a previously unknown Russian military satellite program named ‘Repei’. The photograph was released following a low-profile visit by Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu to the ISS Reshtnev satellite factory near Krasnoyarsk. It is possible the photograph was released as part of an intentional leak – Russia has used this tactic in the past. However, the absence of the photograph from the Russian MoD website suggests that the leak may have been unintentional.

On 06 June 2017, a delegation headed by Russian Minister of Defence (MoD) Sergei Shoigu visited the ISS Reshetnev satellite factory near Krasnoyarsk. Intended to acquaint Russia’s leadership with the company’s military products, it was a relatively low-key visit that was not even mentioned on the company’s website. Several photographs of the visit taken by a TASS photographer were released by the Russian MoD and subsequently appeared on the Press Association and Getty websites.

One of the photographs showed the delegation inspecting a board containing information on a geostationary satellite identified as the ‘Repei-S’ and what appears to be a sister satellite named ‘Repei-V’ that will fly in highly elliptical orbits. Significantly, the name Repei (meaning ‘burdock’) had not previously been associated with any Russian satellite project known in open sources. The satellite shown in the photograph has a pair of large antennae, indicating it could be either a communications satellite or a signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellite intended for intelligence collection.

Writing in a forthcoming feature for Jane’s Intelligence Review, Bart Hendrickx – an experienced observer of the Russian space program – assessed that Repei may be one of two things:

1. New Russian military signals intelligence satellites. Repei-S and Repei-V may be the first Russian SIGINT satellites destined for geostationary and highly elliptical orbits. This would represent an expansion of Russia’s intelligence collection capabilities in an area where, as Hendrickx assesses, Moscow’s capabilities lag behind those of China and the US.
2. New military communications satellites. Several Russian press reports have indicated that ISS Reshetnev is working on a new generation of military communications satellites, identified as Sfera-S (intended to replace the Raduga-1M geostationary constellation) and Sfera-V (intended to replace the Meridian constellation in highly elliptical orbits). It is possible that Repei is an alternative name for Sfera.

Although the other photographs from the visit were accessible at the time of publication, the picture showing the Repei board was unavailable on the MoD’s website. Jane’s assessed that the photograph could have been removed from the ministry’s website once it became clear that it unintentionally identified the Repei satellite.

Alternatively, the release of the photograph could represent a deliberate leak, similar to the apparently intentional leak of supposedly classified information about the development of a nuclear torpedo, the Status-6, on Russian state television in November 2015. However, if this was a deliberate leak, it has so far received far less prominence in Russian media than the Status-6 leak. In addition, the photograph’s absence from the ministry’s website would support the assessment that the leak was genuinely accidental.

Bart Hendrickx has written extensively on Soviet and Russian space history for 25 years. He is the co-author of the book Energiya-Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle.