The US Army plans to build and launch into orbit a constellation of satellites for the first time in 50 years.  The Army will also build the cluster of eight miniature communications satellites within nine months.

The $5 million effort is the Army’s commitment to what is known as Operationally Responsive Space.  The joint program was created in May 2007, after years of encouragement by Congress to get the US military the way to build and fly satellites.  The satellites will provide communications for Army units below the brigade level operating in parts of the world where the military has no current secure satellite communications, such as Africa, said James Lee, chief of strategy and policy for Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Alabama.  He stated further:

“We feel it’s important to have experience at an engineering level to build space capabilities, even if it’s a simple as a cubesat”

“We believe we have the expertise but many of our scientists don’t have the hands on experience.”

The eight satellites will all be launched together, either on a Minotaur or Falcon rocket.  The Minotaur is a four-stage solid fuel rocket that uses decommissioned Minutemman missile rocket motors and was built by Orbital Sciences Corp, while the Falcon 1 was built by Paypal millionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX Company.  The Minotaur has launched twice but has not successfully lofted a payload into orbit.  The satellites will fly in swarm or in loose formation.

Lee added so as not to be offensive, “We don’t really want to replace the Navy or the Air Force.”