How advanced was the satellite technology during the Yom Kippur War?
score:44
When we are comparing tech maturity here, it is important to remember that 1970s saw a change of technologies in satellite imaging - photographic satellites, which captured images on photographic film (i.e analog imaging), were replaced by electro-optical satellites, which captured data in digital form. Photographic technology was mature in 1973, which is to mean that it had its developmental kinks mostly worked out; but due to its analog nature, it had certain limitations that were not due to tech immaturity, but inherent to the tech.
In 1973, the satellites that were available to USA intelligence would be KH-8 Gambit 3 and KH-9 Hexagon models. They were more or less equal in their photographic capabilities, the main difference relevant to our subject being that Hexagon's camera was designed to take stereographic images, which made interpreting them somewhat easier, but Gambit 3's single camera could potentially achieve better resolution. Based on info available, both satellites could take photos with resolution of 1-2 feet, and under ideal conditions - Gambit 3 could achieve resolution up to 4-10 inches, depending on current distance to surface. Even the worst case scenario allowed for the recognition of military vehicles and to some degree identification of the type (i.e. it's enough to tell a tank apart from a truck or an APC, but you likely won't be able to tell one Soviet Cold War-era tank from another).
A more important difference was in the number of reentry vehicles. Why are reentry vehicles important? Because before digital imaging took over, the film had to be physically returned to Earth to retrieve images (some experiments in scanning film onboard the satellite and transmitting the data by radio were made in the 1960s, but apparently results were unsatisfactory; regardless, this wouldn't solve the problem of film being a finite resource). This is the most important tech limitation I was talking about. Gambit 3 Block III, which would be the model available in 1973 carried two return vehicles; Hexagon satellites carried four. At no point in 1973 would the USA have more than two such satellites (that I know of) up simultaneously, so what you got was six series of photographs, after which you would need to launch a new satellite to get more. That meant the decision to take that satellite photo was not a simple decision to make - and the cost of a bad analysis that wasted that shot was, quite literally, astronomical.
Digital imaging, which became available in 1976 with the launch of the first KH-11 KENNEN satellite, eliminated this problem; now you only had to worry about how long the satellite could stay in orbit and/or powered. But these were still in development during Yom-Kippur War.
Another important point to cover would be that even after you got your images, you still had to interpret them - manually. That means that someone had to sit and look through hundreds (or possibly thousands, if you wanted to compare newer images to older ones) of photos, and then make sense of what they were seeing. This process was quite time-consuming, and, as the anecdote you quoted shows, the results often came down to subjective judgement.
To sum it up: USA photographic spy satellite technology was quite mature in 1973, but was more suited to long-term observation and strategic analysis than gathering of quickly changing information such as day-to-day troops movement due to limitations inherent to base technology.
More post
- 📝 Suffragettes vs. Einstein
- 📝 What was the fastest coal-powered ship in a country's navy?
- 📝 Around 1750, How many Native Americans (if any) spent the winter in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan?
- 📝 Why do Wikipedia's and Guinness World Records's measurements of the Achaemenid Empire's percentage of world population differ?
- 📝 Who is this Asian figure?
- 📝 Are there any archeological finds or primary source drawings of the Chinese "blade shaped" bamboo-copter or rotary fans?
- 📝 What does a "wage" mean in the time of 'The Odyssey'?
- 📝 Did Jefferson and Washington smoke weed?
- 📝 Is treason ever successful?
- 📝 Is the modern German language the same as it was in Roman times?
- 📝 Why was the Kashmir issue not completely solved at the end of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971?
- 📝 Why did water stored on premodern ships "go brackish" or "go bad" while at sea?
- 📝 In Francoist Spain, what steps were required for non-Catholics to marry?
- 📝 Why was there no concerted effort to end the Barbary pirate raids until the 1800's?
- 📝 What was the first recorded non-violent toppling of a dictator?
- 📝 How many Bolsheviks were Jewish?
- 📝 Whom did Vernon Jordan help secure affirmative-action jobs in the (pre-)Clinton White House?
- 📝 Writing systems in South America?
- 📝 How is it possible to be ambushed twice at the same place?
- 📝 What is the definitive biography of James Madison?
- 📝 Who were the chief executives of the United States in the thirteen years before George Washington?
- 📝 Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
- 📝 What were the relative contributions of oral & literary education in 5th century BCE Athens?
- 📝 Have there been any joint US-Russia/Soviet military engagements post WW II?
- 📝 What are the origins of Pakistani laws on "blasphemy?"
- 📝 What is the minimum safe speed when dropping depth charges?
- 📝 What was the maximum percent of the Soviet territory that was under Nazi control?
- 📝 How did the stigmatisation of nationalism begin?
- 📝 Can members of the Electoral College vote in opposition of their state's popular vote if they deem the president-elect unfit to serve?
- 📝 How to rebut Holocaust denial argument?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How advanced was the satellite technology during the Yom Kippur War?
- 📝 How was beer production affected by the war during WW2?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 How beneficial were war bonds to the US during WWII
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How close was the Soviet Union to collapsing during WW2?
- 📝 How did the Allies communicate during World War II?
- 📝 How were the Bulgarians regarded by the Nazis during World War II?
- 📝 How wide-spread was antisemitism in the USA during WWII?
- 📝 During World War I, why were church bells stopped until the war was over?
- 📝 How much oil was spilled by the naval combatants during WW2?
- 📝 How was occupied France governed during World War II?
- 📝 How voluntary was Sati during the Mughal era?
- 📝 How much of "Russia" was actually occupied by the Germans in World War II?
- 📝 How was ownership of property managed during the Black Death, when so many original owners had died?
- 📝 How was the relation between the Ottoman Empire and Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro during the Second Balkan War?
- 📝 How common was drug abuse and related deaths in the USA during the conservative 1950s?
- 📝 How was the Roman army in fact organized during Caesar's campaigns in Gaul?
- 📝 Was payment on Louisiana Bonds suspended during the War of 1812?
- 📝 How important was the Suez Canal to the Allies during WWII?
- 📝 What was the nominal strength of a company in a British Regiment during the American war of Independence?
- 📝 How was the safety of allied leaders ensured in transportation for conferences during WW2?
- 📝 How dangerous was it to be a coast watcher during the Pacific War?
- 📝 What was the English Civil War called during the Protectorate?
- 📝 How much knowledge of the past was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries?
- 📝 What was the estimated malaria death toll for US Forces during World War II?
- 📝 How was Enguerrand VII de Coucy able to keep his allegiance to both king of England and France during the Hundred Years War?
- 📝 Did Viet Nam suffer a famine any time during the 1980s? And if not, how close was it to famine?
- 📝 How was the political landscape of Tibet during the era of fragmentation?
- 📝 How widespread was literacy in classical Greek in Europe during the medieval period?