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Ukraine Military Space

Military space in Ukraine is by some accounts handled by the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU). Currently it has 319 military personnel and 838 civilian employees. De jure, they are military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with their own insignia, who are seconded to the SSAU, but in fact they are completely subordinate to the space agency: they receive a salary, are appointed to positions and are dismissed by the leadership of the SSAU.

Othe sourcs report that all work on the creation of military equipment in independent Ukraine is carried out by Ukroboronprom enterprises. Ukrainian enterprises such as the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Yuzhmash were key participants in the Soviet missile program (most of the nuclear weapons carriers were created and manufactured in the Dnepropetrovsk region) and manufacturers of a series of several types of spy satellites for radio reconnaissance and other purposes.

The history of the Ukrainian Space Forces actually began in 1994, when launches of dual-use satellites began - according to papers, their task is civil and scientific “remote sensing of the Earth,” which is a global practice. The first was the Sich-1 satellite.

In 2004, the Sich-1M reconnaissance satellite and several other devices were launched - Ocean-O, Mikron, Sich-2. All of these were still Soviet developments - for example, Sich-1M was a modernized version of the Soviet reconnaissance satellite Tselina-D. At the moment, all these satellites have exhausted their service life and do not transmit information to the ground.

In October 2011 the Verkhovna Rada voted within the scope of management of the State Space Agency to create security units. A total of 284 deputies voted for the adoption of the corresponding bill in the first reading, with the minimum required 226. The bill authorized the State Space Agency to ensure the creation and operation of ground and space segments of satellite communication systems, broadcasting and remote sensing of the Earth, monitoring and analysis of the space situation, position-time and navigation support.

By 2017, SSAU receives space reconnaissance data from Israeli and American spacecraft on a commercial basis. Ukrainian specialists were responsible for receiving information and processing it. Until the spring of 2014, the main structure of the SSAU dealing with military programs was the National Center for Control and Testing of Space Facilities, which was based in Yevpatoria in Crimea.

The processing of information and its transfer to interested authorities was carried out by the Center for Reception and Processing of Special Information and Control of Navigation Space, which is located in the Khmelnitsky region, near the city of Dunaivtsi.

After the annexation of Crimea, SSAU servicemen, who did not change their oath, took unique software to the mainland, which made it possible to restore the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Kyiv. In 2017, work was completed on creating a new, modern control center.

The PS-8.2 information receiving station, allows to receive information from any foreign satellites. Created by Ukrainian specialists by modernizing the Soviet stationary control station for space objects "Fazan", it also has a mobile ground station based on the MAZ chassis, which allows control of satellites at distances from 150 to 4 thousand km, and in case of war, duplicate the functions of the stationary station ( as a spare control station), which dramatically increases the survivability of the entire control system.

Information from space is received in the interests of defense by both security forces (such as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the National Guard, the Foreign Intelligence Service and the State Border Service) and the highest political authorities (NSDC , Presidential Administration), and very often important strategic decisions are made on its basis.

Ukraine itself will not be able to develop a full-fledged Space Force, either financially or technologically. However, Ukraine is quite capable and even should have its own surveillance satellites in orbit, given the constant threat of aggression from its northeastern neighbor. During the years of independence, Ukraine was unable or did not want to create its own aerospace defense system (ASD.)

Its absence, especially elements of modern missile defense (ABM), was acutely felt by 2022, when the Russians struck critical infrastructure with almost impunity. The Ukrainian Air Force and air defense forces, which had rather weak air and missile defense (ABM), were opposed by the military space forces of the Russian Federation, which combines the air force, air defense, and missile defense forces in the space forces.

By 2022 Ukraine did not have a single working satellite in orbit and in receiving intelligence information from space was completely dependent on established information flows from foreign satellites under contracts and from private US companies through the Pentagon. At the same time, Ukrainian field commanders have been using remote sensing information in their tablets since 2014.

Ukraine planned to launch three Earth remote sensing satellites into orbit by 2026. The first one has already been assembled and is at the stage of testing all its systems in order to prepare for launch. The satellite "Sich-2-1" was developed by the State Enterprise "Design Bureau" Yuzhnoye "named after M.K. Yangel." The other two are the Sich-2M and Sich-3-O satellites of the same enterprise.

Experts note that although the functionality of the Sich-2-1 satellite can be used by the Ukrainian military, it is not sufficient to perform reconnaissance tasks. Its spatial fragmentation is 8 meters, which will allow you to notice only large objects or a concentration of enemy equipment. It can only solve surveillance tasks, since during observation it covers a strip of 46 km on the ground. That is, he alone will not make the difference.

The prospective Ukrainian satellites Sich-2M and Sich-3-O have completely different capabilities. They have, respectively, high and ultra-high spatial fragmentation. For example, the Sich-3-O satellite is capable of discerning objects on the ground 0.5 meters in size, which makes it possible to record any individual piece of equipment or crowds of people. Working simultaneously, all three satellites will make it possible to obtain from space a complete picture of what is happening on Earth.

By 2021 the Sich-3-O satellite had already been designed by specialists from the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, but it will be possible to manufacture and launch it into orbit no earlier than 2025-2026. And even then - if government agencies quickly make a number of decisions, and funding is uninterrupted.

At the same time, negotiations were underway to conclude an agreement on the delivery of a satellite into orbit with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The management of Yuzhnoye SDO does not rule out that the agreement will be signed in the near future, and the launch itself will take place before the end of this year.

Ukraine is still using certain elements of the future aerospace defense. First of all, this is the space situation control center in Mukachevo (Dnepr radar), subordinate to the National Center for Command and Control of Space Facilities (NTSUICS). Its main task is the early detection of ICBM launches from Western Europe and the Mediterranean. Another station was located in Sevastopol and provided similar information from the regions of North Africa and the Middle East up to the Indian Ocean. After the annexation of Crimea, access to the equipment of the Dnepr radar in Sevastopol was lost.

It should be noted that these radars according to the Leningrad project were created in Dnepropetrovsk (DMZ). Of course, these radars are outdated in terms of technical level, energy and water consumption for cooling.

In 2009, the chief designer of solid propellant rocket engines of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, Vladimir Kukushkin and Alexander Levenko, presented at the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine a project for the Sura aerospace aircraft with an orbital vehicle (orbiter), designed for flights in space and in the Earth’s atmosphere, which could become a component of the Ukrainian Aerospace Defense Forces. The project was presented by Yuzhmash. Such orbiters can be launched into space using ground or air launch, perform various tasks for a long time and then land by parachute for reuse.

“Then the meeting was led by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Igor Romanenko. Representatives of defense research institutes, General Director of the Luch State Design Bureau Oleg Korostylev, representatives of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and other organizations were present. The participants actively exchanged opinions, and none of those present denied the need for aerospace defense. Moreover, there are aerospace defense troops in all developed countries. For example, the USA and Canada have common aerospace defense forces, and this is a good example for Ukraine,” says the chief designer of the Sura project, as was written about in the Russian Nevsky Bastion, general designer of Science & Space LLC Alexander Levenko.