Russia Blinded By Loss of Missile Detection Satellite

[bananas]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-blinded-by-loss-of-missile-detection-satellite/502518.html

Russia Blinded By Loss of Missile Detection Satellite

The Moscow Times
Jun. 25 2014

Russia has lost contact with one of three military satellites responsible for detecting intercontinental ballistic missile launches, leaving Moscow blind to possible nuclear attacks, Kommersant reported Wednesday, citing a source in the Defense Ministry.

The Oko-1 satellite, otherwise catalogued as Kosmos-2479 — a euphemistic designation often given to Soviet and Russian military space hardware or spacecraft that fails after reaching orbit — was intended to act as the Defense Ministry's eye in the sky for a period of five to seven years after its launch in March 2012.

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In order to provide global coverage with the Oko system, Moscow needs to have two functioning satellites of this type in orbit, and now there are none.

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Russia does have two older types of missile detection satellites in highly elliptical orbits, meaning that location relative to the Earth often changes. In order to provide constant coverage with these types of satellites, Russia would need to maintain six of them in space at any given moment. As a result, Moscow can now only monitor U.S. missile launches for three hours a day.

In 2011, then-commander of the Russian Space Forces, Oleg Ostapenko — now head of the Federal Space Agency — said that Russia would no longer replace failing satellites, but instead focus its efforts on creating an entirely new early warning system. Information on the program is scarce.

Via http://gcrinstitute.org/gcr-news-summary-june-2014/