US concerned about missile monument

[gf0012-aust]

US concerned about missile monumentOctober 26, 2004 Posted: 14:37 Moscow time (10:37 GMT)

The US intelligence services are concerned. The American satellite tracking system located a Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile in the Russian city of Kostroma, NTV reported.

A 20-meter container weighing about 10 tons and having a diameter of more than 2 meters, arrived in the Kostroma missile division from the Sverdlovsk region, where the missile system was deployed.

Yury Oshkin, Deputy Commander of the Kostroma missile unit, said the plastic container contained a missile in active service.

US intelligence services expressed concern why the container arrived at an operating military base, and sent a request to the Russian authorities. The Russian military said it was a museum exhibit, a gift from the Russian Defense Ministry, and it would not be launched. Instead, it will be put up as a monument to the missile troops in one of the city’s parks.

However, the Americans were not reassured. They gave Kostroma’s military command 10 days to remove the “monument� from the military base and transfer it to the local administration. The monument will be put to mark the 60th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War.

http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=46091

 

[highsea]

This seems rather odd, why would Russia use it's newest ICBM for a WW2 museum exhibit? I can't help but think I'm missing something here... :?

 

[adsH]

to be honest its there ICBM in there Ceremony on there territory, there is very litle any can say or do that would make them redo things in other ways.

 

[gf0012-aust]

to be honest its there ICBM in there Ceremony on there territory, there is very litle any can say or do that would make them redo things in other ways.

Nope, there is an agreement between the US and Russia on the movement of nuclear weapons. Either side is obligated to advise of a platform shift. It is so that mistakes can be avoided.

More to the point is that the US was able to physically track the weapons shift in progress.

 

[adsH]

simple, write a program that scans through footage's available through ENVI Sat enhanced images tracks movements of certain particular shapes like missiles, Key areas could be identified and shape and pattern recognition system can be used. the Sat can made to take snaps on an ad-hoc basis making passes on key ares of interest. the coverage would only be complete iif we have increased number of orbital passes.

 

[gf0012-aust]

adsH

note the locations:

Sverdlovsk to Kostroma.

It's not something that is on a predictable track, you would have to actually track the platform in real time as it could be on a highway, or travelling by boat. (on the Volga) If by boat then it could have been dropped off at a number of locations.

This to me indicates that it's more than just sat tracking in play.

They had very good intel - and more than just a good algorithm

 

[adsH]

told you what i do rather then what they are doing there is no way anything can escape the clutches of a Sat system. the Envi tool kit is designed to enhance images (large areas) taken in realtime and proces them section by section identifying structures, this is done ins real time, if my university computers can do this then i'm sure the US has a better capability. if you identify object during a Sat parse then you can call up additional resources to track the object as it goes. NO one knows, really how many US Sat orbit the glob and where, so my educated guess would be that they divide the world into grids scann the glob based on the following priorities, hot spots, regular scans while an interrupt for special request may exist. by grinding and dividing the job the Spy sat system could theoretically cover a large area such as the major countries. and of-course you could have special tracking priorities on certain area known to contain ICBM after all ICBMs are containers for the worlds most deadliest weapons.

but ofcource as you suggested the US might of had good intel

 

[gf0012-aust]

NO one knows, really how many US Sat orbit the glob and where, so my educated guess would be that they divide the world into grids scann the glob based on the following priorities, hot spots, regular scans while an interrupt for special request may exist. by grinding and dividing the job the Spy sat system could theoretically cover a large area such as the major countries. and of-course you could have special tracking priorities on certain area known to contain ICBM after all ICBMs are containers for the worlds most deadliest weapons.

Last time I checked, the USAF unclass numbers of satellites were greater than all other satellite owning nations combined.

So, that doesn't even include USG/USN and commercials. Add in the satellites that they lease from France and Israel, plus shared data from Australian DIGO assets, and they have an enormous capability that can literally give them 24/7/365 access to nearly all of the important parts of the world.

And you're right, one sat is the key, once it triggers on a predetermined dataset, then others can be bought into play at diff times. But, even though a 2k strip window slot can be passed, you still have to make prescriptive "asks" for it to trigger on. The USAF/USG can set requests on the fly with the assets they own - but it's not a trivial task. The French and Israeli assets are only passing sats, ie they are footprint tasked and not asset tasked.