January 6, 2024:
Over the past 70 years the United States has spent thirty billion dollars on several generations of ballistic missile early warning systems, which is often shortened to BMEWS. This effort began in the 1950s, before the Russians, as the Soviet Union, strived to create such a threat. When the Russians finally did build a large number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBMs, they found they were behind in the development of an early warning system.
In 2009, the United States put into orbit a pair of experimental STSS (Space Tracking and Surveillance System) satellites. These have better heat sensors and are there to provide earlier warning of ballistic missile launches, so that anti-missiles hit ballistic missiles earlier and with a higher probability of destroying them. STSS can also track other satellites, making it easier to destroy enemy satellites in wartime. STSS recently demonstrated an ability to detect short range, air-launched missiles.
STSS is another component of the BMEWS. The half century old system uses radars and satellites to monitor the planet for ballistic missile launchers (specifically ICBMs, but any large missile launch is detected.) If STSS passes more tests, it will become part of a new generation of BMEWS satellites.
Early on, BMEWS consisted of long range radars that could spot warheads coming over the North Pole (from Russia). When SSBNs (ballistic missile carrying nuclear subs) entered the Russian arsenal in the 1970s, BMEWS was augmented by satellites equipped with heat sensors that could detect the enormous amount of heat generated by a ballistic missile launch (or any large explosion, like an above-ground nuclear weapons test). These satellites cover the entire planet, while the radars only cover part of the Middle East. In all, 23 of these DSP (Defense Support Program) satellites were launched by 2007. This was when the replacement of the DSP satellites began. The 2.3 ton DSP satellites were replaced by the Space-Based Infrared System or SBIRS. This was a network of four stationary orbits. There are 24 low orbit infrared or heat sensing satellites that provided more detail than the DSPs. SBIRS was fully operational by 2012. By this time SBIRS had been renamed the Space Tracking and Surveillance System or STSS. The latest upgrade was made in 2021 with the addition of a new Long Range Discrimination Radar or LRDR. There are six of these, three in the continental United States, two in Greenland and one in Britain.
The United States has provided Israel with access to its BMEWS. Twice before, in 1991 and 2003, the U.S. allowed Israel to plug into BMEWS, to get warning of Iraqi missile launches. Later BMEWS provided Israel warnings of any Iranian ballistic missiles headed west from Iran to Israel.
