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The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) will consist of a series of test satellites in low-Earth orbit carrying infrared sensors and releasable kill vehicles. The experiment will improve the ability of infrared sensors to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles in their boost phase, and test the accuracy of kill vehicles against live target missiles. The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency plans to deploy the first NFIRE satellite in the summer of 2004.

 

During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative began to explore the idea of developing a space-based missile defense shield. Progress was made under what became known as the Brilliant Pebbles program, which envisioned a small constellation of satellites capable of firing watermelon-sized interceptors at incoming ballistic missiles. In the 1990s, however, the Clinton Administration cut the program’s funding, effectively ending Brilliant Pebbles.

 

In recent years, MDA has been revisiting space-based defenses. In August 2002, the Agency awarded an initial contract to Spectrum Astro of Gilbert, Arizona, for the development of the Near Field Infrared Experiment. The plan from the beginning was to place an initial satellite in low Earth orbit during the summer of 2004. In March 2004, General Dynamics acquired Spectrum Astro, although the NFIRE program remains on schedule. MDA recently earmarked an additional $68 million for the experiment, which now also includes Orbital Sciences Corporation and Universal Space Network, Inc.

 

In July 2004, a four-stage Minotaur rocket carrying the initial NFIRE satellite will be launched from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Once in low-Earth orbit, the satellite will spend up to one year testing its two main components: an infrared sensor and a releasable kill vehicle. The experiment will track target missiles launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, gather information on ballistic missile conditions in space, and eventually attempt to intercept a target missile using its kill vehicle. NFIRE might even test MDA’s hypertemporal imager (still under development), a device that could potentially detect a hostile missile shortly after its launch.

 

Data from these tests will be used to improve (1) the ability of infrared sensors to detect and track ballistic missiles’ boost-phase exhaust plumes; (2) the accuracy of navigation and guidance systems on interceptor missiles; and (3) the capability of kill vehicles as they approach their targets. Over the next few years, MDA will take these test results into account as it decides which anti-missile programs to concentrate on. The NFIRE program, therefore, will contribute immensely to the eventual deployment of the broader U.S. defense architecture.

 

Yet despite the many potential benefits of the experiment, NFIRE has drawn severe criticism from anti-missile journalists and politicians who believe that the experiment sets a dangerous precedent. ABC News led the charge in March 2004, accusing the Bush Administration and the Department of Defense of “actively pursuing an agenda calling for the unprecedented weaponization of space.” The Moscow Times, shortly afterwards, denounced NFIRE as a “sinister milestone” proving that the U.S. would soon break “a long-held taboo and launch the first weapon into the global commons of outer space.”

 

Many prominent Democrats also expressed their outrage. After learning that NFIRE had a “significant chance of colliding with the [target] missile,” Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) demanded that the Pentagon report to Congress on this potentially destabilizing “offensive space weapon.” Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) confronted U.S. Air Force Undersecretary Peter Teets directly: “My question to you is, is the NFIRE program intended to pursue space weapons capabilities? If not, what safeguards are being placed on the NFIRE program to stop it from turning into such a program?”

 

This harsh criticism runs false on almost all accounts. First, it is important to note that NFIRE’s kill vehicle will not act as a true weapon. As James Oberg, writing for MSNBC, notes, “the kill vehicle’s fangs have been pulled.” The platform will lack its own rocket motor and steering device, and will have limited maneuverability. MDA, in fact, will have to launch its target missile almost directly at the NFIRE satellite in order to accomplish a successful interception. In short, the kill vehicle will not be able to “kill” much more than U.S. test missiles on a predictable trajectory.

 

Second, even if NFIRE were armed and dangerous, it would not be the first time that a weapons system has been deployed in space. During the Cold War, the late Soviet Union deployed a wide range of space-based weapons, including its space-to-space “killer satellite” capable of unleashing clouds of shrapnel; its Salyut-3 space station armed with a high-powered machine gun; its Energia super-booster featuring an anti-satellite laser beam; and several dummy thermonuclear weapons in low-Earth orbit over North America.

 

Finally, what few journalists and politicians have mentioned is the fact that long-range ballistic missiles themselves have already “weaponized” space. Any nuclear, chemical, or biological warhead launched at the U.S. from China, North Korea, or Iran would spend most of its trajectory outside the Earth’s atmosphere. For this reason, it only makes sense to use space as a platform for defensive systems, such as the Space-Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High), the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), the Space-Based Laser (SBL), and the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV).

 

All controversy aside, NFIRE remains on schedule for its initial launch in July 2004. If all goes according to plan, MDA plans to test NFIRE’s kill vehicle against a target missile in 2006.

 

 

Sources

 

“Bush Administration Pursuing Space Weaponization Plan-ABC.” Dow Jones International News, 31 March 2004.
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), NFIRE Statement.
Floyd, Chris. “Dark Matter.” The Moscow Times, 9 April 2004.
Gambrell, Kathy. “Rep. Sanchez Seeks Progress Report On NFIRE Program.” Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, 11 May 2004.
Lallanilla, Marc. “Shooting Stars: U.S. Military Takes First Step Towards Weapons in Space.” ABC News, 30 March 2004.
Missile Defense Agency.
Oberg, James. “The War of Words Over War in Space: Terminology Touches Off Pentagon Test Tempest.” MSNBC, 16 April 2004.
Orbital Sciences Corporation, Press Release.
Ruppe, David. “U.S. Might Intercept Target From Space in 2006.” Global Security Newswire, 29 April 2004.
Selinger, Marc. “Satellite Experiment Planned For Boost-Phase Missile Defense.” Aerospace Daily, 16 January 2003.
Singer, Jeremy. “MDA Plans To Launch Satellite To Assist In Missile Defense Tests.” Space News, 9 December 2002.
Spectrum Astro, Press Release, 9 June 2003.
Spectrum Astro, Press Release, 25 March 2004.
“U.S. Takes First Step To Weaponize Space.” Space Daily, 30 March 2004.
Universal Space Network, Inc., Press Release.

Obering: Time May be Right for Experiments With Space-Based Defenses

April 12, 2005 :: News

“Emerging threats round the world indicate the need for developing a space-based layer” of defensive systems, said Missile Defense Agency Director Lieutenant General Henry Obering yesterday at the 3rd Annual Missile Defense Conference in Washington, reports Defense News. The MDA, Obering said, would like to “maintain options for a space-based test bed” to begin experiments by fiscal year 2007. “There is a lot of attraction to space-based interceptors.”
        Obering noted, however, the ideological opposition which such tests will likely provoke: the subject is fraught with “a lot of emotionalism and religious argument” associated with weaponizing space.”
        The Aerospace Daily & Defense Report reported on April 12 that the MDA currently plans to award one-year concept design contracts to two to four industry teams in FY 2008, and that in FY 2009, one or more teams would be picked for a development and test phase that would extend to FY 2015 and include several space-based intercept tests, with a decision on whether to build a constellation of some 50 to 100 satellites possibly taking place 2014-2015. The MDA is not even seeking money for the project, however, until FY 2008, with some $45 million.
        Speaking also of the Space Tracking Surveillance System (STSS) satellite system, Obering expressed, “I believe this is critical, by the way, to the future of the missile defense program…I believe we have to get to space as it relates to our sensing capability because we don’t know where the threat is going to be emerging from so we have to be able to provide global coverage and this is the only way to do it really, is from space.”
        MDA is also reportedly planning to begin the Near Field InfraRed Experiment (NFIRE) in FY2007, an experimental satellite that would collect data on ballistic missile plumes. (Article, Link) 

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