Combat Effective Space Situational Awareness Providing Near-Term

Early on in the space age the US and USSR tacitly agreed not to interfere with each others satellite operations. This served to significantly reduce tensions during the Cold War. However it also resulted in eliminated any hostile threats to space systems. In the absence of this threat US development of Space Situation Awareness (SSA) capabilities concentrated on locating identifying and tracking as many orbiting objects as possible. A robust network of sensor sites and control nodes were built and these have met most if not all warfighter needs for over fifty years. Todays situation has changed. Space has become indispensable to US national security. Nations have already denied or tried to deny space capabilities to other nations and threats continue to proliferate. Leaders inside and outside the military recognize this and a number of programs are in development to provide more robust SSA. However until these systems are operational a potentially dangerous vulnerability exists. Quick cost-effective capabilities need to be implemented to fill this gap.