5 things to know about the US's upcoming Silent Barker spy satellites

The US Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) have partnered up for the launch of spy satellites as part of their new Silent Barker mission.

The launch is set to be carried out by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), which said the mission will "protect nation's vital interests and support humanitarian efforts worldwide."

Silent Barker's satellites were scheduled to launch on Tuesday at 1234 GMT onboard an Atlas V rocket from the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

However, in its latest update, ULA said the launch has been delayed due to an impending tropical storm and that a new date will be provided once it is safe to launch, potentially Thursday.

The destination of the mission's satellites is geosynchronous orbit (GEO), a belt of satellites at nearly 36,000 kilometres above the equator. But what is the Silent Barker mission?

1. Tracking satellites launched by other countries

In recent years, US officials have warned of several Russian inspector satellites approaching American spy satellites in both low-Earth orbit and higher up in GEO.

So, the Silent Barker mission aims to "deter aggression" by letting potential adversaries know that the US Space Force is keeping a close watch on what happens in GEO, Space Force Lt. General Michael Guetlein said.

"A huge element of deterrence is the ability for the adversary to know what we can and cannot see. So we actually want our competitors to know that we have eyes in GEO and that we can see what's happening in GEO," Guetlein said in a pre-launch teleconference on Monday.

The US military currently relies only on ground-based radars to scan GEO but by the Silent Barker satellites will be placed closer to observation targets, giving the NRO and the Space Force a new edge.

"Not only are we going to maintain custody and the ability to detect what's going on in GEO, but we'll have the indications and warnings to know there's something out of the normal occurring, and that goes a long way towards deterrence."

2. NRO's not-so silent mission

While the exact capabilities of Silent Barker remain unknown, the US Defence Department is making an effort to be “more transparent” with this mission compared to others, according to Scolese.

“We want to let people know, to some extent, what our capabilities are, and this is one capability that if you think about it, has great value beyond just national security,” Scolese said in a roundtable with reporters on Monday,

He also said that the space environment is becoming more competitive as more countries launch missions into space, which also means "its becoming easier and easier to see what’s going up there."

3. Mysterious technicalities and budget

But it would not be the NRO without some secrets.

While we know there are “multiple payloads” on the upcoming launch, officials have not disclosed how many, what companies were involved in building the satellites or specifics about their design, such as their scanners.

However, Scolese said US officials plan at least one more launch with additional Silent Barker satellites in the coming years.

The budget is also unknown but the Government Accountability Office put the estimated cost of the program at $994 million.

4. Partnering up, saving time

It took only about three years to develop the Silent Barker and it is set to be fully operational in 2026, according to Scolese. The relatively short turn-around is due to the rare collaboration between Space Force and the NRO.

“Today, the NRO and Space Force are working hand in hand to shape the future of ground moving target indicators, which will provide day/night, all-weather detection and tracking of ground and maritime targets for the warfighter,” Scolese said in earlier remarks.

Working together with the Space Force and other military services, allows the NRO "to deliver and acquire reliable and resilient GMTI systems at speed, delivering this critical capability with our colleagues at Space Force" to the mission.

Frank Calvelli, the senior space acquisition authority at the Department of the Air Force, said, this team-up approach "really fits" his priority "of speed, speed and speed".

"The IC [Intelligence Community] had an existing design that we could scale up, and we can get there years earlier with, and that was really a deciding factor for partnering with them,” Calvelli said.

5. Classified and publicly available data

Raw data from the Silent Barker satellites will most likely remain classified but tracking information will be provided to the military's catalog of space objects, which is publicly available.The catalog is also widely used by commercial and international satellite operators to avoid clashes and interference.

So it seems we can expect a lot of new information to come as Scolese boosts the satellites will supply “unprecedented coverage" of what's going on in the GEO belt.