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New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

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Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#3
> The company he formed in 2015 had a simple pitch to government agencies: “We convert a capital expense to an operation expense.” Raytheon Co., the giant defense contractor, was an early investor and customer. It has engineers working with Hawkeye’s 31-person team and, in turn, will sell some of the company’s findings to its own government customers.

Essentially, open market spooks for hire, selling limited space intelligence to countries that can't afford their own space programs.

Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#4
post #3

> The company he formed in 2015 had a simple pitch to government agencies: “We convert a capital expense to an operation expense.” Raytheon Co., the giant defense contractor, was an early investor and customer. It has engineers working with Hawkeye’s 31-person team and, in turn, will sell some of the company’s findings to its own government customers. Essentially, open market spooks for hire, selling limited space in…

It’s been done with optical imagery for a while, but this is probably the first SIGINT.

Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#6
The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D later... I’d be surprised if they didn’t have this capability by the 70s. What do you think the National Reconaissance Office is?

Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#7

The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D later... I’d be surprised if they didn’t have this capability by the 70s. What do you think the National Reconaissance Office is ?

You probably mean the National Reconaissance Office [1]

[1] http://www.nro.gov/

Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#8

The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D later... I’d be surprised if they didn’t have this capability by the 70s. What do you think the National Reconaissance Office is ?

RF tracking was even more sophisticated in WWII.

The Gestapo developed a man-portable set worn under a trenchcoat:

https://www.cryptomuseum.com/df/gurtelpeiler/index.htm

Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#9
post #7

The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D later... I’d be surprised if they didn’t have this capability by the 70s. What do you think the National Reconaissance Office is ?

You probably mean the National Reconaissance Office [1] [1] http://www.nro.gov/

Thanks, updated.

Re: New Satellites Will Hunt Pirates, and Maybe Terrorists

#10

Pirates, and maybe terrorists, and definitely lots of ordinary people spuriously prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws.

Or just people they don't like and eventually everybody. I think in a few decades the surveillance infrastructure of 1984 will look benign and quaint. Winston Smith actually could hide for a while.
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