Russia and Imagery Intelligence
RECOVERABLE MILITARY OBSERVATION FLIGHTS
1971-1975
By Charles S. Sheldon II [1917-1981],
Chief of the Science Policy Research Division
Library of Congress,
Congressional Research Service
In the 1950's, the United States gave some publicity in the trade press and before Congress that it was going to develop space reconnaissance systems of satellites which might survey the world photo graphically, and then permit the recovery of the resulting films on Earth. There was also talk of television pictures to give a first look. The principal one of these projects had several names—Big Brother, Pied Piper, Sentry, WS-117L, and Samos . Samos made some early test flights with rather uncertain results and obvious failures before it disappeared in 1961 under the blanket of rules limiting public information. A somewhat larger technology program which involved similar efforts of picture taking and recovery was called Discoverer, and the air snatching or the sea pickup of film-carrying recovery capsules was a regular feature of the news, until after Discoverer 38, when the name and activities, if any, disappeared in 1962 from official press releases and public testimony before Congress.
Since that time, the United States has made many military flights of unannounced purpose, but to this day will not describe on the record in public the purpose or the results of these registered but unnamed, unidentified flights. The United States and the Soviet Union in Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) talks do refer in their agreements to "national technical means" as a way of gathering information for each to insure compliance by the other to any agreements made. Annual posture statements before Congress by officials of the Department of Defense carry the implication that the United States has a good handle on the problem of keeping track of Soviet missile and ship construction and building of silos, and even of flights and tests. The "national technical means", not specified, may be made up of many kinds of sensors and sources of information, and this report will not try to deduce or define what all of these may be.
The Soviet Union also had "national technical means at its disposal, and it was a fair inference that these means include a strong program of surveillance from space, with recovery of photographic him a part of the larger whole. One can imagine many connections in technology, even of actual flight hardware as well as launch vehicles, between the Vostok,
Voskhod, and Soyuz programs, and what is one for unmanned military observation purposes. The technology shared may include not only use of the A-l and A-2 launch vehicles but possibly even the, same basic spacecraft structures. At the least, the experience of building stabilization, communications, power, recovery and instrumentation systems must have worked back and forth between the manned, Open programs and the unmanned, unacknowledged military programs.
Before 1962, almost all Soviet references to use of military photographic satellites were hostile, although lead times are such that they surely must have invested some years in development work toward their" own systems of this class. After such Soviet flights began, there continued a Soviet public official stance of innocence with regard to their own activities, and disapproval of U.S. flights which they believed were taking place. However, on at least two occasions some years ago in private conversations, there were informal high level probes into the possibility of exchanging picture information gained from space. Former Senator William Benton was asked whether the two countries could trade pictures. Both Khrushchev and his son-in-law made half-jocular, half-serious offers, with no U.S. response, the issue seems not to have come up again. What is significant is that for some years the one-time virulent campaign against purported U.S. space observation activities has been almost completely muted.
Even as long ago as 1967; Professor Kondrat'yev discussed in non-military terms the importance of understanding atmospheric optics as essential to successful reconnaissance. Although he talked to some extent about Earth resources work, his emphasis was upon high precision pictures. (11)
There appeared in 1968 a Soviet review of what were believed to be current and projected U.S. plans for military observation satellites, and whether accurate or not. it was written in factual terms without, editorializing or diatribes. (12)
On the occasion of the 300th Kosmos satellite, another article re-viewed the usefulness of such satellites for the most detailed reporting on both natural conditions and man-governed activities. Although the discussion was cast in economic terms, it claimed capabilities as already existing to do the most detailed synoptic measures on all activity on the Earth. (13)
With or without explicit acknowledgment, analysis to follow will demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that the Soviet Union flies the largest number of such military photographic payloads of any nation. (For example, a larger number of these Soviet missions than the second most active space operating nation has flights in its total space program, civil and military—the United States.) There is no-reason to suppose, given the high priority these satellites evidently enjoy, that the Russians are not getting back a dividend they believe makes the flights worth their cost. On at least two occasions, there have been suggestions to the United States that it use similar payloads rather than U-2 aircraft. Khrushchev suggested them as the way for the United States to surveil Cuba after an American aircraft was shot down by a missile over Cuba . More recently, the Russians suggested satellites as a better way to check on missile defenses near the Suez than to use aircraft. But at the same time, they have charged that satellite pictures have been passed by the United States to Israeli military authorities. (14)
In summary, one application of space technology is to collect electromagnetic radiation emitted or reflected from the Earth. When this is done at lowest resolution and from fairly high altitude, the results are thought of as primarily of use for reporting weather, with such data usually in the visible or infrared range. When done at intermediate altitude and with somewhat higher resolution, and often in many parts of the spectrum, such results feed the growing experimentation with Earth resources evaluation and management. When the flights are done at the lowest sustainable altitudes and presumably in still higher resolutions, the resulting data reveal human activities in considerable detail. Wavelengths of visible light are the most obvious of interest, because of the well developed state of the art with photo-graphic film able to accept vast amounts of data on small pieces of 1m which can be magnified for closer study. But selection of different sensitivities to various frequencies both in the range of visible light and beyond into infrared and ultraviolet, and use of color film all may extend the analytical opportunities. Here we find an area of application which blends together what is happening in Earth resources work and in military studies. For example, lower resolution multi spectral work may reveal geologic and tectonic features which are not otherwise apparent. But as one moves into detailed study of agricultural crops and forests, with an interest in crop kinds and their health plot by plot, or marking trees which may be diseased, the resolution requirement becomes more severe. The same is true in use of Earth resources satellites for application in urban land use studies. The task of measuring the economic status of housing or spotting those houses which have insufficient insulation in winter through their infrared signatures begins to be a technology not wholly distinguishable from what military users of space data might require. Photography in the visible range would reveal the gross outlines of major human activities on the ground, whether construction, or order of battle on placement of missiles, aircraft, tanks, and trucks. But one can also imagine it would be useful in some cases to couple what seems to be true in a photograph with synoptic data taken at other frequencies. For example, what appears to be an undisturbed forest in visible light might show in other frequencies that there was camouflage hiding activities, or that heat emissions disclosed what buildings were in use or unoccupied. Perhaps there could even be some spectral studies of exhaust smoke from a factory that would tell what materials were being processed in the furnaces. What shows up in stereo pairs may be much more revealing than single flat views. Basically, however, one supposes that the principal collection of data is possible only when there are no clouds interposed between satellite and the ground to be observed.
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