US Launched A Hypersonic Missile Tracking Satellite In Response To Chinese & Russian Threats
The United States has launched a hypersonic missile tracking satellite, which are difficult to respond to with existing missile defense systems. The U.S. Department of Defense announced on the 15th (local time) that the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Space Development Administration (SDA) launched six low-orbit satellites on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida the day before.
Two of the six satellites are prototype ‘Hypersonic and Ballistic Missile Tracking Space Sensors’ (HBTSS). Hypersonic missiles are more than five times faster than the speed of sound, and unlike ballistic missiles, which fly in a certain orbit and are relatively easy to track, hypersonic missiles fly on unpredictable paths at low altitudes, making them difficult to detect.
Accordingly, the United States has been developing HBTSS as a system that can provide targeting information needed to intercept hypersonic missiles. The Department of Defense explained that the introduction of HBTSS will enable tracking missile threats from launch to interception, no matter where they are.
“This launch comes at a pivotal time as we enter a new phase in missile warning, tracking and defense,” said MDA Administrator Heath Collins. “The HBTSS satellite is an essential step forward in our efforts to outpace our adversaries.”
The remaining four are also missile-tracking satellites.
The United States is promoting the PWSA system, which launches hundreds of satellites into low-Earth orbit to form a dense missile surveillance network, and four satellites are part of this plan. Currently, most of the U.S. missile tracking satellites are deployed in geostationary orbit (altitude of approximately 35,000 km), but by placing a satellite in low earth orbit (altitude of approximately 1,900 km) like this one, it is possible to monitor a wide area while using less complex sensors. .
The U.S. military plans to test the newly launched HBTSS and PWSA satellites for two years.
Defense News, a military magazine, explained that the newly launched satellite is part of the U.S. Space Force’s larger plan to strengthen missile warning and tracking capabilities in the face of growing threats from China and Russia.
In its 2022 Missile Defense Review, the United States assessed that China has been narrowing the gap with the United States in conventional ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, and that Russia has already used various cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic missiles in Ukraine. North Korea has selected and is developing a hypersonic weapon as one of the five major national defense tasks for 2021, and claimed that the missile launched on the 14th of last month was hypersonic, but the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff defined it as an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). There is a bar.
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