It was a lot of missiles quick, and we could see where they were trying to impact,” said Long. “With the indications that we received, we knew immediately that this was the threat that we were potentially waiting for,” said Mission Commander 1st Lt. The SBIRS sensors picked up the infrared flare of the Iranian missiles just like they would for a space launch, but they’re sensitive enough that operators can see what threat class of missile they’re dealing with and where it’s heading. If anything, the detection of the threat was fairly mundane. There was no flashing red light or siren that went off in Colorado when the attack began, just days after Soleimani’s death. The third Space-Based Infrared Systems Geosynchronous Earth Orbit spacecraft launches aboard an Atlas V rocket. With the collection strategy in place, all the 2nd SWS team could do was watch and wait. Without actually moving the satellites, Casteneda, Reed and other mission management operators arrange the starer payloads to provide optimal coverage of the region. Each HEO payload includes a scanning sensor. The scanning sensor continuously monitors the Earth, while the more accurate starer can provide advanced coverage for theater missions. Specifically, the GEO satellites include two sensors: a scanner and a starer. … Then our mission team interprets those IR collects.” “All it really does is collect IR photons. “This system is a passive collector,” Davenport said. The Government Accountability Office said in 2019 the system cost roughly $20 billion. By detecting infrared light created during the launch of ballistic missiles, the sensors allow the operators to see every missile launch taking place around the world. “In discussions with other agencies and our intelligence analysts, we were able to come up with a strategy to collect on whatever the potential retaliation could have been.”īuilt by Lockheed Martin with infrared sensors from Northrop Grumman, the SBIRS constellation is made up of six satellites: four geosynchronous (GEO) satellites and two hosted payloads hitching rides in highly elliptical orbits (HEO) to provide polar coverage. Christianna Castaneda, a fellow mission management operator. “We have an ability to sort of tailor how we collect things, and I just remember going through that mission planning and trying to come up with that collection strategy,” said 1st Lt. ’ And I said, ‘Oh, well, all right, cool.’ My Spidey-senses kind of went off and I was like, ‘All right, well, looks like we’re going to have to start doing some planning.’”Ĭoordinating with the intelligence community and colleagues within the Department of Defense, Reed and the other mission management operators put together a collection strategy for SBIRS, ensuring that the satellites’ sensors were best positioned for optimal coverage of the region. Davenport comes on to the floor and he kind of talks us through, you know, ‘Oh, well, we just killed one of their generals, the No. That is, until it flashed across a news screen that Soleimani had been killed. Tasia Reed, a mission management operator with 2nd SWS at the time. “I happened to actually be on when Soleimani was killed,” said Space Operations Center Commander Capt. Brandon Davenport, then-Space Operations Center Combat Operations Division Space Cell chief, diagrams how to geolocate a jamming signal at a deployed location in Southwest Asia, Feb. But with the lives of their fellow service members on the line, the stakes had rarely felt higher.Ĭapt. In many ways, it was a night like any other, with the squadron reading the data generated by the satellites and reporting it out. In an exclusive interview, they brought C4ISRNET behind the scenes of one of the most high profile missile attacks on American forces in recent history. This is the story of the people - the men and women of the Space Force’s 2nd Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado - who operated SBIRS that night and provided that critical early warning to seek cover. Rarely has the Defense Department offered such a high profile example of the system’s capabilities and its direct impact on the American war fighter. The public now knows what many in the national security community suspected: That early warning system was the Space Based Infrared System, a constellation of satellites that surveils Earth’s surface 24/7 to detect missiles. and coalition forces that had not been evacuated were able to take cover in bunkers, thanks to what President Donald Trump referred to at the time as an “early warning system.” The barrage damaged runways, tents, equipment and a helicopter, and the Pentagon acknowledged that 110 people needed to be treated later for traumatic brain injuries.
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