Jul 10 1978
From The Space Library
The U.S. Navy had orbited two clusters of ocean-surveillance satellites to monitor radio communications and radar emissions from Soviet submarines and ships, and would add more spacecraft to expand coverage, Av Wk reported. The Navy had launched the first of the two clusters (each consisting of three small satellites in close proximity) in 1976, the second cluster in 1977, all from Vandenberg AFB into nearcircular 63°-inclination orbits at 700mi altitudes. At that altitude, the spacecraft could receive signals from surface vessels more than 2000mi away.
The Naval Research Laboratory, which in Dec. 1971 had built and launched three spacecraft as a first demonstration of using multiple satellites to direction-find and eavesdrop on Soviet surface vessels and submarines, had designed and built the ocean-surveillance satellites (NOSS). Martin Marietta had begun production of additional satellites with E-Systems, Inca, as major subcontractor to provide the electronic intelligence (elint) receivers and antennas. For the future, the Navy had planned a more advanced spaceborne ocean-surveillance system using active radar to pinpoint the position of surface vessels, to be developed for launch by 1983 under a program called Clipper Bow. (Av Wk, July 10/78,22)
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