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
- 📝 When were marching bands last used in warfare?
- 📝 Are there historical instances of property rights not being respected/acknowledged between U.S. states, territories, and the federal government?
- 📝 Were there hippies in the USA in 1930?
- 📝 Why did the Moors invade the Iberian peninsula?
- 📝 In Alta California, who worked at the Ranchos del Rey?
- 📝 Who is the person sitting to the left of corporal Hitler?
- 📝 Which European countries did not have a revolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution and why?
- 📝 How did Milton know about Egyptian gods like Osiris, Isis and Orus?
- 📝 Why does the Philippines have little fossil deposits?
- 📝 Why do minor political parties in the US receive so few votes?
- 📝 How were the Big Four compensated when British Rail was formed?
- 📝 How did the general population of England convert so smoothly to Protestantism?
- 📝 Please help identify this medal... German military?
- 📝 Was there a town called Munich in Jackson County, Tennessee?
- 📝 Who is the Amyrtaios of Herodotus?
- 📝 Was the sprouting of seeds for food production known in Europe before 1800?
- 📝 What effect did the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir have on Great Britain's international relations during WW2?
- 📝 Are there pictures expressing anti-occupation sentiment directed at British Forces in Germany before 1990?
- 📝 Who ruled India when the Abbasid ruler Harun al-Rashid was the Caliph of Baghdad?
- 📝 Was there a temple dedicated to Old Age ("Geras") in ancient Athens?
- 📝 MLK used "negro" several times in his "I have a dream"-address. Could white "liberals" at the time also use "negro" as a neutral word for blacks?
- 📝 What were Argentina's intentions for the Falkland Islanders?
- 📝 When was Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians?
- 📝 Who said: "Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war"?
- 📝 How did medieval serfs obtain their iron goods?
- 📝 What factors contributed to Jews moving out of the Middle East?
- 📝 What did Lord Carnarvon study at Trinity College Cambridge?
- 📝 Why did Ethiopia not fight with Eritrea over coastal territory when giving them independence?
- 📝 Is the "youth bulge" hypothesis an evident explanation for imperialistic/rebellious historic movements and genocides?
- 📝 Why did Sun Tzu believe you shouldn't wait beside a river when eager to fight?
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?