WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is on track to launch at least two weather monitoring satellites next year while determining a long-term replacement for its aging fleet that currently supplies essential yet insufficient environmental monitoring.
In the coming years, some capacity will come from U.S. military-owned satellites but DoD planners and weather analysts for the most part will use data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Europe’s Eumetsat, the Japan Meteorological Agency and other partners, officials said Nov. 20.
Col. Patrick Williams, director of weather for the U.S. Air Force, said the military can no longer rely on the aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) constellation. Only two are still functioning, and their limited observational capabilities are insufficient for modern military missions, Williams said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.
The Mitchell Institute on Monday released a report criticizing DoD’s lagging efforts to recapitalize its environmental monitoring satellites. “For over 20 years, multiple incomplete replacement programs have resulted in this capability gap as DMSP comes to its end of life,” said the author of the report, senior fellow Tim Ryan.
DMSP satellites in sun-synchronous low Earth polar orbits carry sensors to measure parameters like cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, and moisture in the atmosphere. They are used by the Air Force Weather Agency and other organizations to generate environmental analysis and forecasting models needed for planning aviation missions, ship routing, missile testing and other military operations.
“There are not enough DMSPs to give us enough of a refresh rate,” Williams said. “So it might as well be a dead constellation at this point.”
Ryan in the report lays out several unsuccessful efforts by the Air Force over the past two decades to replace DMSPs. “Knowing DMSP is on its…
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