Aug 31 1978
From The Space Library
DOD's top command, control, and communications official, Dr. Gerald Dinneen, had characterized the use of satellite-borne lasers to communicate with submarines as costly and inefficient, Aerospace Daily reported. In testimony before the House Committee on Armed Services, Dinneen had said such a scheme would require "a number of satellites." Spreading out a laser beam would lose energy, so the beam would have to be relatively narrow to maintain contact with an antenna on the surface of the water. This would require either a large number of satellites, or scanning the beam around the surface of the water to communicate with other submarines. Dinneen had downplayed the idea of piggybacking blue-green laser kits on satellites (suggested as a possibility by 1981 or 1982) because very few satellites, communications or navigation, had excess capacity: "If you are going to put something on," he added, "you have to take off something else." (A/D, Aug 31/78, 276)
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