Since the early 1970s, the Defense Support Program has been the backbone of the U.S. ballistic missile early warning system.
This once classified satellite first launched in 1970 providing strategic surveillance with an infrared capability to detect long-range ballistic missile launches.
The mission of the DSP satellite is to detect missile launches using its infrared telescope that recognizes heat against the Earth’s surface.
“In 1991, there were 12 foreign ballistic missile programs in the world,” Wagner said. “Today over three dozen countries openly acknowledge a ballistic missile program and we have seen the catastrophic effects when these countries use ballistic missiles against each other or even against their own people. These missiles are increasingly lethal and mobile with more reliable, accurate and effective guidance systems. Technology enabled smaller, faster, more accurate, more storable, and inherently more deployable missiles
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