US efforts to improve its intelligence gathering efforts in support of its anti-terrorist operations will be boosted next month by the launch of two military satellites. A National Reconnaissance Office radar imaging satellite is to be launched by a Titan IVB from Vandenberg AFB, California on 1 October. It is believed that an Atlas IIAS (pictured) launch from Cape Canaveral, is planned10 days later, carry a signals intelligence (sigint) satellite. The sigint satellites are part of the Echelon communications monitoring network operated by the US National Security Agency and other English-speaking nations.
Source: Flight International
