The Pentagon would get a much greater return from missile defense (ABM) if all satellites located in different orbits could interact with each other, in particular, exchange data via optical communication channels. The corresponding proposal of Lockheed Martin Corporation is reported by SpaceNews.
According to Eric Brown, the company's senior director of strategy for military space missions, this would make it much better to monitor the launch of ballistic and hypersonic missiles from Russia and China. According to him, the corporation's proposal suggests that all information about launches can be obtained "without the need to go down to Earth."
The publication reminds that the US Department of Defense has several satellite systems that track missile launches, which are not directly connected not only with each other, but also with new spacecraft systems planned for launch. According to Lockheed Martin, such satellites should be equipped, in particular, with laser communication terminals.
In August 2021, the president of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, said that all Starlink satellite Internet system spacecraft launched since September last year will be equipped with laser terminals, which will reduce the dependence of the system on ground stations and reduce the signal delay time (ping).
In November 2019, the Breaking Defense publication reported that in December 2018, the Pentagon, as part of the Defense Experiment Using the Commercial Space Internet program, conducted several experiments with the Starlink near-Earth satellite system of the American company SpaceX.
