The original was taken from fonzeppelin's colleague in True Anomaly "Jackal": Private Space Inspector/StalkerIn the current process of militarization of Space, there is a new interesting trend: a significant element of private initiative "from below".
Private aerospace companies and startups of the "new cosmos" actively seek to interest the military with their original ideas and concepts. And the other day, the American company "True Anomaly" announced plans in October 2023 to launch a trial pair of its private inspection satellites into orbit.
The company "True Anomaly" (English: "True Anomaly") is a startup founded in 2022 in Colorado. For a long time, absolutely nothing was known about it, but just the other day "True Anomaly" came to light with assets of $ 30 million, a staff of 57 employees, its own enterprise in Denver (Colorado) with a total area of 3,250 square meters, and a project of the JAOPV inspector spacecraft. What stands for "Jackal" Autonomous Orbital Pursuit Vechicle - Autonomous Orbital Pursuer "Jackal".
According to the concept, the "Jackal" is a small satellite inspector. With a large supply of delta-V, it should approach other spacecraft and conduct a visual inspection of them from a short distance. To do this, the Jackal will be equipped with a set of active (radar, lidar) and passive (infrared and high-resolution optical cameras) sensors capable of thoroughly examining the target device. Such inspections can be both peaceful - for example, inspection of failed spacecraft and space debris for subsequent information from orbit - and military: tracking and tracking enemy spacecraft. And the company "True Anomaly" clearly says that it is primarily interested in military applications.
The basic concepts when creating "Jackals" are as follows:
* High autonomy - The Jackal AOPV is designed as a universal inspection device for use anywhere in the Earth-Moon system. Low Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, circumlunar orbit - everywhere he will be able to perform a rendezvous and inspection of a given target. Due to the developed software, the "Jackal" will not need continuous monitoring of the MCC, and will be able to respond in real time to possible maneuvers of the target (without delay for signal transmission).
* Cloud architecture - both the management of the "Jackal" and the processing of data coming from it will be performed in the "cloud" through special software. This will allow the exchange of large amounts of data, for example, high-quality video inspection of the target.
* Mission control system - under the project "Jackal" AOPV, the company "True Anomaly" has developed a common software environment MCS (Mission Control System), combining tools for planning, management, processing and storage of information, as well as modeling and training in realistic conditions.
The first pair of "Jackals", however, will only follow each other. The company is going to use them as technology demonstrators: the satellites will track and accompany each other, perform rendezvous maneuvers and inspect each other at close range. In case of a successful demonstration, the company is going to present its project to the Pentagon.
The idea of "True Anomaly" is to create a fundamentally new service - private space inspectors who carry out orders for the interception and inspection of spacecraft. The company is going to launch a fleet of "Jackals" into a variety of orbits-inspectors who, by order of the US military (or American allies), will perform tracking of enemy spacecraft. Anywhere in the Earth-Moon system.
"The US military superiority on Earth is ensured by superior capabilities in outer space. This superiority, however, is rapidly eroding, and as a result, the United States and its allies are facing new threats and challenges. The company "True Anomaly" was created as a specialized group of experts in the field of tactics, technology and defense, specifically to develop the necessary capabilities to restore our space superiority" (Sam Winterrot, one of the founders of the venture capital firm "Eclipse", who invested $ 17 million in "True Anomaly")
For me, the "True Anomaly" initiative is interesting primarily because it opens up a completely unexpected new direction in military space: private companies that sell military services. To some extent, this trend is already taking place. The military of many countries use the services of civilian companies that carry out orbital photographing of the Earth for quick and cheap acquisition of intelligence information. The Starlink network of Internet communication satellites (SpaceX) has demonstrated itself to be an extremely effective military communication system. But "True Anomaly" clearly raises the stakes by offering not an extension of the existing civilian service for military purposes, but the creation of a fundamentally new service specifically for the military.
And this is extremely beneficial for the military. The "private" militarization of Space allows them to access the necessary "military services" without having to push all solutions through clumsy state bureaucracies. It also makes it possible to circumvent the political indecision and unwillingness of politicians to be the ones who will take the first step in the escalation of the arms race: "no, no, we have not started to put inspection satellites into orbit en masse, we just purchased a package of services for the inspection of space debris from a private supplier" The second looks much better in financial reports... and from the second it is much more difficult to inflate an international scandal. Again, in the case of any incident, the blame can always be blamed on the management of a private company, which de "showed an inappropriate initiative" and "arbitrarily interpreted the request", and resolve the situation with the demonstrative resignation of the chairman of the director (with a sufficient "golden parachute" so that he would not be offended, of course)
And do not assume that the matter will be limited only to observation and inspection - at least for a long time. An inspector spacecraft capable of autonomously approaching an unwilling target spacecraft and controlling its movement accurately enough for a thorough inspection from a short distance is by definition also capable of intercepting and ramming this target. That is, if necessary, the grouping of inspection satellites "Jackal" will be able to turn into clouds of gas and fragments satellites that the US military does not like in all possible orbits of the Earth-Moon system. Their very existence will be an exquisitely disguised (but obvious) USSF military presence throughout the system.
An interesting trend, isn't it? Extrapolating it into the future, one can come to an interesting conclusion: the first military space fleets, quite possibly, will belong not to national governments, but to private military corporations providing "services of orbital security and countering hostile actions." The military will primarily be the tenants of these services (well, and also a means of giving them international legitimacy).
