美国太空部队空间发展局（SDA）局长古帕塔普·“GP”·桑杜在科罗拉多斯普林斯举行的第41届太空研讨会上，讨论了在导弹发射前对其进行阻截的挑战。
美国政府机构正与工业界合作开发各种工具，旨在导弹起飞前对其进行破坏，这一时间段被称为“发射左侧”（发射前）。雷神情报与空间公司空间监视、侦察与情报副总裁埃里希·埃尔南德斯-巴克罗表示：“随着威胁的演变，我们正在研究威胁的不同方面。为了应对这些威胁、使其处于风险之中并最终实施防御，必须在行动和任务能力方面发挥不同的能力、权限和要素。”
专家小组在4月15日表示，有效的导弹防御将需要多样化的技术、政策和策略。美国国家航空航天局（NASA）喷气推进实验室国家安全领域执行官丹·张表示：“如果你在‘左侧’走得足够远，你就进入了基础情报领域。当你接近实际发射时间时，你就进入了征兆和预警领域。”
丹·张指出，虽然这些类型的分析通常由不同的技术执行并通过不同的项目资助，但“它们必须在一个时间轴上协同工作，这个时间轴有时会非常快，有时可能会持续几天。这需要极大的灵活性。”
更快且更暗的目标
美国国防和情报机构正急于评估导弹能力。例如，它们的飞行速度有多快，其光谱特征是明还是暗？此类信息将帮助空间发展局（SDA）建立“扩散型作战员空间架构（PWSA）”。桑杜表示，这是一个低地球轨道星座，用于导弹预警和跟踪，“因为我们的工作实际上是从发射那一刻开始的”。
Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, U.S, Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) director discussed the challenge of stopping missiles before they launch at the 41st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Credit: Space Foundation
COLORADO SPRINGS – U.S. government agencies are working with industry to develop tools to disrupt missiles before they take flight, a timespan called ‘left of launch.’
“We’re looking at different aspects of the threat as it evolves,” Erich Hernandez-Baquero, Raytheon Intelligence and Space vice president of space intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, said at the Space Symposium. “Different types of capabilities, authorities and elements have to come into play, both operationally and in terms of mission capabilities, in order to stay on top of that threat, hold it at risk and ultimately defend against it.”
Effective missile defense will require diverse technologies, policies and strategies, a panel of experts said April 15.
“If you go far enough to the left, you are in the realm of foundational intelligence,” said Dan Chang, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory national security area executive. “As you get closer to the actual time of launch, you’re in the realm of indications and warnings.”
While these types of analyses are often carried out with different technologies and funded through distinct programs, “they have to work together in a timeline that sometimes will be very fast and sometimes might play out over a period of days,” Chang said. “It’s something that requires a lot of agility.”
Faster and Dimmer
U.S. defense and intelligence agencies are eager to evaluate missile capabilities. How fast can they travel, for example, and how bright or dim are their spectral signatures?
That type of information will help SDA establish the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a low‑Earth orbit constellation to warn of and track missiles “because our job really starts at launch,” said Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, U.S, Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) director. “When we look at left of launch, it is understanding, science and knowledge.”
Earth-observation satellites that monitor activity around the world over days, weeks or months may shed light on evolving threats. For instance, Vantor’s Earth-observation constellation provides high-resolution electro-optical imagery.
“But there’s a lot of additional information that comes from combining visible imagery” with synthetic aperture radar, infrared and lidar “to provide context about activity around sites of interest,” said Matt Jenkins, Vantor chief space officer. “We want to track that, understand where it’s going, and provide information on where threats might come from.”
Multiple vendors gather remote sensing data through diverse phenomenologies. While that makes “fielding and engineering and integration harder,” it’s necessary to address “the holistic problem we face,” Sandhoo said. “The threat is going to get faster and dimmer. There is not a single solution.”
Once data on po
