Posted on 08/10/2013 3:12:53 PM PDT by LibWhacker
UPDATED 1:45 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is shutting down a key part of its network for tracking satellites and orbital debris, possibly as soon as Oct. 1, according to an Aug. 1 memo obtained by SpaceNews.
Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, “has directed that the Air Force Space Surveillance System be closed and all sites vacated” effective Oct. 1, the memo said.
The letter, signed by Austin Frindt, a contracting officer with Air Force Space Command, was addressed to Five Rivers Services of Colorado Springs, Colo., operator of the current Space Fence tracking system. The Space Fence, a planned replacement for which is on hold pending a Pentagon-wide review, is a line of VHF radars stretching across the southern United States.
Deployed in the 1960s, the VHF Space Fence includes three transmitter sites and six receiving stations. It is responsible for approximately 40 percent of all observations performed by the Air Force-run Space Surveillance Network, which includes other ground-and space-based sensor assets, said Brian Weeden, technical adviser at the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space sustainability.
The memo explained to Five Rivers Services that the Air Force was not exercising its option for a fifth year of a contract to provide management and logistical support for the nine field stations. Lori Thomas, president of Five Rivers Services, declined to comment and referred questions to the Air Force.
‘This is your notice to begin preparing the sites for closure,” the memo said. “A specific list of action items will be provided as soon as it is finalized. A specific date to turn off the mission system has not been established yet, but will be provided to you immediately upon determination.”
Andy Roake, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command, pointed to the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, in an email Aug. 5.
“In this tough, sequestered budget environment, we’re considering many options, but for FY14, no final decisions have been made,” he said.
Though part of a broader surveillance network, the VHF Space Fence is crucial because it can track objects up to 24,000 kilometers away. Other sensors in the network generally track objects at altitudes lower than a few thousand kilometers, Weeden said.
“The Space Fence is very important as it gives an ‘uncued tracking’ capability,” Weeden said. “Because it’s constantly transmitting, it can detect objects without being tasked to do so. There are some other sensors in the network that can do uncued tracking to some degree, but the Space Fence is rather unique in the sheer size of the detection coverage it has.”
The Space Fence, along with operators at the Joint Space Operations Center, can observe objects down to the size of a basketball and make precise determinations of their characteristics, location and movement. Each month the system is responsible for logging more than 5 million satellite observations, according to an Air Force fact sheet.
In April, Shelton said two of the Space Fence’s receiver sites had been placed in cold storage, one in Glennville, Ga., and one in Hollandale, Miss., reducing the overall accuracy and effectiveness of the system. The change was made as part of the Air Force’s response sequestration.
In July, the Air Force released a request for proposals to operate the aging system beginning in September 2015 — one year after the Five Rivers Services’ contract was set to expire. The request said the Space Fence “has been identified as a critical defense system and, therefore, shall be manned on a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year basis at transmitter sites and 8-hour, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year basis at receiver sites.”
A full-scale development contract for an updated version of the Space Fence had been expected in 2012 or early 2013, but on July 16, Shelton said the multibillion-dollar project is being held up due to a wide-ranging Pentagon review that includes major acquisition programs. The review is examining scenarios under which the Pentagon’s budget is cut by $150 billion, $250 billion and $500 billion during the next decade.
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors of Moorestown, N.J., and Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Tewksbury, Mass., have developed competing designs for the new network of ground-based radars, which would be capable of tracking greater numbers of smaller objects than the current Space Fence.
Shelton said in July that engineers at Eglin Air Force base in Florida were looking for ways to improve the current Space Fence as a contingency plan should the Pentagon elect not to go forward with the next-generation system.
In April, Shelton said one-third of the Space Fence’s receiver sites had been placed into cold storage, reducing the overall accuracy and effectiveness of the system as part of the Air Force’s response to the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.
NWO puppet 0bama is doing a rather seamless job of shutting down our capabilities, and our superpower status along with it in a relatively short period of time. 200+ years of progress deconstructed by one Marxist Muslim gay illegal alien agent of the NWO with a phony biography.
Oh great...now were going to be flooded with illegal aliens from zeta reticuli.
Missile defense agency and the Air Force operate other radars that also pick up everything in orbit. Hate to see the redundancy lost, but we are far from blind.
If I were Kim Jong Un, I’d schedule a satellite launch the day after they finally pull the plug, and send it on a low orbit that passes over the White House and Lake Kickapoo Texas.
My guess is that his is redundant capability. There are lots of ground based sensors that track satellites and space junk.
Fine by me. Take this expenditure out of the defense budget and let Congress vote on whether or not to fund it.
Hold on now. I agree about his marxist/gay/moslem/NWO/illegal alien/puppet status.
But that “seamless job” thing would imply work.
I’ve seen nothing that indicates he works.
How much is the rent?
We're so nice! We're twice as polite as Days Inn.
For whatever is coming, we'll not only leave the light on for ya, we'll leave the windows unlocked and the doors wide open.
Maybe God will protect us, because apparently obama and his sequester just said "No."
Marxist Muslim gay illegal alien agent of the NWO with a phony biography and a fake nobel peace prize
Space Fence is unique, and imho, every cost effective. Other sensors can refine tracks on tasked satellites, but Space Fence (in which I have no personal stake) is a one off. As it said, 40% of all observations come from one relatively inexpensive system, that is already up and running. I’m baffled.
Hmmmm...you know, that sounds crazy enough...it just might work!
HEY FREE REPUBLIC... OBAMA JUST GAVE THE SYRIANS 192 MILLION DOLLARS FOR “HUMANITARIAN AID”. YEAH LIKE WE BELIEVE THAT GARBAGE! NO MONEY FOR FUNDING THIS DEFENSIVE SYSTEM TO MONITOR SATELLITES AND DEFENSIVE SPACE BASED WEAPONS AND ORBITING DEBRIS BUT WE HAVE ANOTHER COOL 192 MILLION DOLLARS TO GIVE TO AL QAEDA AND THE MB! What an great American that obama is. /S/S/S/S/S/S/S/S/S/S/S
True, there is some redundancy. But the old Space Fence does a lot that no other system can. And it's cheap. It doesn't simply protect us from stray chunks of debris. Our enemies could hide offensive elements in those extensive debris fields. My understanding is that only a space fence can keep track of it all.
Another twist... The facility they're shutting down in October provides coverage for the Southern-tier states; i.e., largely Republican states. Oh, that muslim pos in the White House is vicious.
My Dad, Roger Easton, designed the Space Fence. It helped inspire GPS. Grrrr
They need the money for Obama's unfunded ad ad nauseam campaigning and his vacays.
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