U.S. Air Force to shut down 'Space Fence' surveillance system

They say due to budget constraints, wonder if that is the TRUE reason???

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force will shut down its space surveillance system that tracks satellites and other orbiting objects by October 1 due to budget constraints caused by automatic federal budget cuts known as the sequestration, it announced Monday.

Deactivating the system by October 1 would save the Air Force Space Command $14 million annually starting in fiscal year 2014.

The surveillance system got the nickname "Space Fence" because it transmits a "fence" of radar energy vertically into space that can detect any object or debris that crosses it without being cued to do so.

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reply to post by HomerinNC


The Air Force got hit hard by sequestration. At one point 17 squadrons were grounded, Red Flag has been cancelled until the instructors can get requalified, and are ready to train again. The only way they got flying again was to shuffle money from other projects and put it into the flying budget. This was one that got hit so they could fly again. It came down to "do we want to fly and be able to do our mission, or do we want upgrades, and to watch space?" Flying won.

$14 million to the Air Force is nothing. They are up to something or it's a useless project anyway.

reply to post by roadgravel


It is when you have to cut flying to the point your pilots aren't qualified anymore. They were looking at as long as 90 days of flying to get their pilots combat qualified again. I'm sorry, but if it's a choice between flying, and watching satellites, I'd rather they were flying.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Oh that sounds like it needs back up no? Wait a wait, its a choice between training and watching sats...

damn wtf

reply to post by Nephalim


Well, do you want a force that is worthless in a fight, but knows where every single satellite in orbit is, or a force that can fight if necessary, but doesn't have exact coordinates on every single satellite in orbit? That's the choice that was given to them by Congress.

Yes , they are up to something alright .

Gives them a good excuse when they fake a huge meteor strike , "Uuurm , we didn't see it coming".

Its becasue they have soemthing else...bigger, better, more efficient. They dont need any of the $$$$ from Sequestering.

They get all those unreportable $$$$ in "black projects"....and thats in the BILLIONS.

reply to post by AthiestJesus


You really think Space Fence is the only system that might see an asteroid? There are god knows how many systems, and telescopes are looking, and monitoring. Space Fence is for tracking satellites and space debris, not asteroids. They might pick one up just before impact, but by the time they did it would be way too late anyway if it even did see it coming.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Nephalim

 

Well, do you want a force that is worthless in a fight, but knows where every single satellite in orbit is, or a force that can fight if necessary, but doesn't have exact coordinates on every single satellite in orbit? That's the choice that was given to them by Congress.

Let me ask , what fight are you referring to ?

It`s not like the CIA are going to give jets to their little love children in Al Qaeda . What if something lands in your city and kills hundreds/thousands of people ? you`d want to know why there was no warning wouldn`t you ?

reply to post by Zaphod58


I said meteor but , meh .

Ok , a satellite lands in your street and kills everyone ............. you`d want answers right ?

reply to post by AthiestJesus


And if they are needed, right now at least 17 squadrons are totally useless.

Space Fence isn't going to find an asteroid or meteor in any time for anything to happen anyway. It's a low earth orbit system. It can't even see up to geosynchronous orbit. By the time it saw an asteroid, you'd be screwed anyway.

Even a satellite has many other systems tracking it. Space Fence is just the one that has tracked almost everything in orbit. It's not the only system though.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Just won`t be wrong huh ?

Originally posted by roadgravel
$14 million to the Air Force is nothing. They are up to something or it's a useless project anyway.

well, when the meteor came down into Russia on the same day a bigger one was supposed to be traveling by... I thought "how odd, they could find the big one months out but had no idea the one a third of it's size was coming?"

i think they knew but i also must admit that I'm one of these people who are not completely convinced that it wasn't exploded before impact... because exploding it before impact could have been very helpful in it not being devastatingly destructive and I also watched a lot of those videos claiming something intercepted it. i realize this may be hoaxes but i'm not totally convinced they are hoaxes, then lo and behold they make a pact between Russia and FEMA for protection from incoming objects. perhaps just my vivid imagination but the truth is... missiles can be VERY fast... and that would actually be putting them to good use....so I'm not trying to slam on these efforts too much and do have an open mind, but to turn this system off.... would give them an excuse to ignore something incoming...that they KNOW is coming.

I just don't know but yeah... it's a drop in the bucket compared to the money they blow, so what gives?

Isn't the US military budget the largest budget on Earth.

The government just offered a 10 million reward (a thread here). Money is nothing.

Originally posted by roadgravel
Isn't the US military budget the largest budget on Earth.

The government just offered a 10 million reward (a thread here). Money is nothing.

Yep , hell , they print all they need.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by AthiestJesus

 

And if they are needed, right now at least 17 squadrons are totally useless.

Space Fence isn't going to find an asteroid or meteor in any time for anything to happen anyway. It's a low earth orbit system. It can't even see up to geosynchronous orbit. By the time it saw an asteroid, you'd be screwed anyway.

Even a satellite has many other systems tracking it. Space Fence is just the one that has tracked almost everything in orbit. It's not the only system though.

edit on 8/12/2013 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)

screwed as in early warning or interception?

interception could be done in a matter of seconds. If they can hit another missile they can surely hit a rock moving much slower.

reply to post by AthiestJesus


Ok, I'm wrong. You guys are all right, Space Fence is being shut down because they want something to hit us, and there are no other systems that can possibly track satellites in orbit, or keep track of all the debris up there. The money they're saving is nothing, and they don't really need to save it.

reply to post by NotAnAspie


A rock moving much slower? You're kidding right? The average speed of an asteroid is 25 kilometers per second. Some have been tracked at 30 kps. That's an average of over 55,000 mph. Even if we hit it, the odds of nudging it out of orbit and making it miss us, unless it's really far away, are tiny.

A meteorite generally enters the atmosphere at 25,000+ mph (as fast as 160,000 mph). An ICBM has a reentry speed around 9,000 mph.

Also, tracking asteroids and meteors is a global effort. Not just an American effort. If one is spotted coming at us, chances are another country could see it coming before us anyway.