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Document created: 6 September 00
Published Aerospace Power Journal - Fall 2000

America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security by Jeffrey T. Richelson. University Press of Kansas (http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu), 2501 West 15th Street, Lawrence, Kansas 66049-3905, 1999, 329 pages, $35.00.

Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive, has written several books on the American intelligence community and its means of data collection. His latest work, America’s Space Sentinels, provides informative insight into the development and use of infrared (IR) satellite platforms and the lasting impact they continue to have on American national security. Readers who add this book to their personal libraries will find the more than 50 pages of endnotes and three appendices of data on the Defense Support Program (DSP) an invaluable baseline for further research on space-related topics. I was impressed that the author’s style of writing effectively weaved history, geopolitics, and technical jargon in such a way that this work will appeal not only to people in the space and intelligence career fields but also to a cross section of operators, strategists, and engineers.

This book includes three distinct sections. Chapters one through five present the issues surrounding the deployment of DSP satellites and the vindication of the program’s proponents. Chapters six through 10 cover the technical evolution and utilization of DSP satellites in response to changes in the geostrategic environment. Chapters 11 through 13 address the debate over DSP’s potential successors. The author concludes the final section by presenting the future missions of DSP’s replacement: the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS).

Richelson opens the book with the genesis of the cold war and the wealth of V-2 rocket data procured by the US Army from the German missile and research facility at Peenemünde, Germany. He then shifts gears to the post-sputnik debate over the viability of space-based early warning satellites as a more effective means of covering the emerging Soviet ICBM threat than ground-based radars. His focus then moves to the whirlwind of operational tests, congressional debate, contractor issues, and friction among senior defense leaders over the potential deployment of DSP’s predecessor, the Missile Defense Alarm System. What makes this third chapter interesting are the parallels that one can draw to the recent controversy surrounding the proposed deployment of a national missile defense. The ensuing chapters cover events leading to the operational deployment of the DSP constellation and the stumbling blocks encountered along the way to meeting that realization.

The second section of the book addresses upgrades made to DSP satellite sensors over the years to accommodate changes in American doctrine and nuclear war-fighting strategies. Accompanying these shifts in doctrine was interservice rivalry over the dissemination of data on tactical events detected by DSP satellites. Richelson summarizes the Air Force’s noncooperation as “due more to fear of compromising the primary DSP mission of warning of strategic attack than to reluctance to share a key Air Force asset with a rival service” (p. 105). Chapter 10 is devoted to the use of DSP satellite data to support allied operations during Operation Desert Storm. This chapter illustrates how DSP data was used to expeditiously pinpoint Iraqi launch locations, enabling quicker counterstrikes by allied forces. It also explains how DSP satellite detection of incoming Scud missiles was used to cue Patriot missile batteries. Ironically, this successful use of DSP satellite data during the Gulf War “made it a target for criticism as part of the debate over the need for a new system” (p. 175).

The initial chapters of the book’s final section address the interservice and interagency turf battles that stemmed from indecision over the appropriate technology to replace DSP satellites. The myriad of Air Force Space Command and US Space Command documents gained from Richelson’s Freedom of Information Act requests provides readers with a front-row seat to the clash of personalities among those who staunchly defended DSP and those who believed its performance during the Gulf War to be a fluke—thereby necessitating its replacement. As readers would expect, the final chapter talks about what the SBIRS program is and how it will continue to support DSP early warning missions, albeit in a radically different geostrategic environment, where the focus has shifted from strategic warning to counterproliferation, theater-specific issues, and treaty verification.

America’s Space Sentinels is the only book to exclusively cover the employment of DSP satellites since Desmond Ball’s A Base for Debate: The U.S. Satellite Station at Nurrungar, published in 1987. Richelson’s work has provided us with a detailed history of the employment of DSP satellites; more importantly, he has told the story of their successful utilization since the end of the cold war. This book is a must read for people who desire to intelligently discuss the issues that surround the employment and utilization of space-based IR sensors. Kudos to the University Press of Kansas and Mr. Richelson for sharing it with the rest of us.

Capt Clifford E. Rich, USAF
F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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