Replying to a message of Ross Sauer to Bob Ackley:

"Bob Ackley -> Jeff Binkley" <1:300/3> wrote in news:31516$POL_INC@JamNNTPd:

Decades ago I was given rather broad access to 'special compartmented
information,' which was kept in a limited access vault in a
sub-basement of SAC headquarters. In the two years I had that access
I never bothered to check any of it out. When I was debriefed I had
to ask what some of the stuff was and they just said 'you don't need
to know.' I still have no idea what it is I'm not supposed to be
talking about... <g>

I did have access to satellite photography (in those days KH-9 and
KH-11) for most of my tour at SAC, but I only looked at a little of
it (and I don't know what I was looking at). I was never all that
interested in the subject. Whether or not our satellites can read a
license plate or tell if some sweet thing lying on a beach is
wearing a bathing suit I've no idea; nor do I care, it simply isn't
something that interests me.

If memory serves, the KH-9 satellites periodically spit out a film
cannister that was retrieved (caught in mid-air) by a specially
equipped C-130; when it ran out of film it became a piece of space
junk. I think the KH-11 was the first to use a comm downlink rather
than film cannisters - note that was over 30 years ago...

I was just reading about a satellite that was recently launched,
basically it's an upgraded version of the ones already up there that listen to communications, like cell phones.

Seeing as I don't have a cell phone, (don't need or want one right
now,) looks like I don't have to worry. <G>

Forty years ago the US military maintained radio intercept sites all over
the planet. Around that time a method of 'broadband' recording was developed and mounted in reconnaissance aircraft. Those 'broadband' recordings were then transcribed at ground installations in the US - said ground stations operated just
like the overseas sites did. Those overseas sites began to be shut down in the 1980s. I presume the 'broadband' technology was extended to use satellites rather
than reconnaissance aircraft.


--- FleetStreet 1.19+
* Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)

"Bob Ackley -> Ross Sauer" <1:300/3> wrote in
news:31529$POL_INC@JamNNTPd:

I was just reading about a satellite that was recently launched,
basically it's an upgraded version of the ones already up there

that RS> listen to communications, like cell phones.

Seeing as I don't have a cell phone, (don't need or want one

right RS> now,) looks like I don't have to worry. <G>

Forty years ago the US military maintained radio intercept sites all
over the planet. Around that time a method of 'broadband' recording
was developed and mounted in reconnaissance aircraft. Those
'broadband' recordings were then transcribed at ground installations
in the US - said ground stations operated just
like the overseas sites did. Those overseas sites began to be shut
down in the 1980s. I presume the 'broadband' technology was extended
to use satellites rather
than reconnaissance aircraft.

I read somewhere, that the move from aircraft to satellites was prompted
mostly by the Soviets shooting down KAL flight 007, since there had been a elctronic snooping aircraft in the area also.

--- Xnews/5.04.25
* Origin: Fidonet Via Newsreader - http://www.easternstar.info (1:123/789.0)

HEllo ROss,

On Fri 2038-Dec-03 14:23, Ross Sauer (1:123/789) wrote to Bob Ackley:

I read somewhere, that the move from aircraft to satellites was
prompted mostly by the Soviets shooting down KAL flight 007, since
there had been a elctronic snooping aircraft in the area also.

THere was already a push underway, if I'm recalling the time period correctly.
THose u2 spy planes were a risk, as were
other such. Also you have to remember that even then there
were international treaties in place regarding the shooting
of each others' satellites. Iirc the first of the kh birds
predated the Korean Airlines flight shootdown, but might be
wrong on that one.

Regards,
Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: (1:116/901)

Replying to a message of Ross Sauer to Bob Ackley:

"Bob Ackley -> Ross Sauer" <1:300/3> wrote in
news:31529$POL_INC@JamNNTPd:

I was just reading about a satellite that was recently launched,
basically it's an upgraded version of the ones already up there

that RS> listen to communications, like cell phones.

Seeing as I don't have a cell phone, (don't need or want one

right RS> now,) looks like I don't have to worry. <G>

Forty years ago the US military maintained radio intercept sites all
over the planet. Around that time a method of 'broadband' recording
was developed and mounted in reconnaissance aircraft. Those
'broadband' recordings were then transcribed at ground installations
in the US - said ground stations operated just like the overseas
sites did. Those overseas sites began to be shut down in the 1980s.
I presume the 'broadband' technology was extended to use satellites
rather than reconnaissance aircraft.

I read somewhere, that the move from aircraft to satellites was
prompted mostly by the Soviets shooting down KAL flight 007, since
there had been a elctronic snooping aircraft in the area also.

Not likely. Most folks don't know that the US ran 'peripheral reconnaissance' missions all around the former Soviet Union and mainland China. The Soviet Union shot down several of them, and was known to set up false beacons to
cause the US aircraft to stray across the border instead of remaining on 'our' side of it. BTW, the Soviets do it to this country, too - just not as much; their TU-95s have a humongous unrefuelled range.

More likely it was simply the cost. If you have the 'backenders' sitting at consoles somewhere on the ground transcribing material it's a whole lot less expensive than it is to put them in an aircraft to do the same thing. And,
of course, if you're not using an aircraft you don't have to worry about the compromise of any classified material if it goes down - as happened with
that Navy P3 off Hainan Island some years back.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
* Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)