In a rare interview on CNBC's "Manifest Space" podcast in May, the director of the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Chris Scolese said the agency's plan is to quadruple the number of spy satellites in orbit between now and 5.
A commercial satellite. Photo: spaceflight now
To realize this ambitious goal, Mr. Scolese said that the NRO needed the cooperation of private commercial satellite companies to share advanced technology and reduce the cost of production as well as launching and operating satellite systems. He emphasized that the NRO is looking for new technologies for spy satellites such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, quantum sensing and communication.
To demonstrate the important value of private commercial satellite companies, Mr. Scolese revealed that it was commercial satellite images that detected Russia's plan to attack Ukraine before hostilities occurred on February 24, 2, or the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US mainland in February 2022.
And when the Russia-Ukraine war began, private American commercial satellite companies such as Planet Labs, Spire provided images of the Russian army on the battlefield, thereby serving the daily battle plan of the Ukrainian army. The US government has encouraged commercial satellite companies to share images with the Ukrainian side before and during the conflict, even buying images and distributing them to the Ukrainian government. At the same time, the Washington government is also promoting direct connections between US private satellite companies and Ukrainian intelligence analysts to promote information flow.
Notably, the Starlink satellite Internet system of the US private space corporation SpaceX has been used by Ukraine to connect civilians, government agencies and military units that cannot access the Internet using the system on the ground. In particular, the Ukrainian military has used Starlink to control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in areas of conflict with Russia. These UAVs are responsible for detecting the position of the Russian military, allowing Ukraine to coordinate reconnaissance flights, identify targets from a distance and attack with bombs.
DUC TRUNG (Synthesis)
