Some U.S. military observers are surprised by this action by the USAF:
Defense and space industry executives were surprised Wednesday to see a U.S. Air Force “sources sought and request for information” in FedBizOpps on the next-generation missile-warning satellite constellation — known as the Space-Based Infrared System Follow-On.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center invited contractors to an industry day Nov. 21 and gave them a short window of less than 24 hours to register.
To many who have watched the SBIRS follow-on effort drag on for years, the suddenly convened industry day seemed odd. Industry sources said they were puzzled as to why the Air Force solicitation talks about an urgent need and then says a new system would not be deployed until 2029.
The Space and Missile Systems Center’s Remote Sensing Directorate has an “unusual and compelling urgency to constitute a new highly resilient space warfighting construct-based five geosynchronous and two polar next generation architecture, in order to counter emerging threats while operating in a contested environment,” said the solicitation.
Russian military observers are less surprised. I’m going to assume it has something to do with the new Zircon missiles, which reportedly travel at 4,600 mph. That sort of speed is bound to break any current anti-missile system. It also guarantees that the US Navy’s control of the seas appears to have gone the way of the Royal Navy’s.
The important thing to remember is that this doesn’t mean that the U.S. military is unable to defend U.S. borders – that has merely been the will of the civilian leadership for the last 52 years – but that it will no longer be able to project force or impose U.S. demands the way it has in the post-WWII era. Serbia was the warning, and Syria was the onset of the return to a balance of power situation that, while still favorable to the US, is an observable change from the last 25 years of a monopolar world.