On July 6, at 4 a.m., the Israeli Aerospace Agency and Israel Aerospace Industries launched the Ofek-16satellite (“Orpheus”) from the Palmachim air base, almost in the centre of the Jewish State.
The
carrier was a Shavit 2 rocket and, after about 90 minutes of travel, the
satellite entered into orbit regularly according to calculations.
Elbit
System also collaborated in the program, organized by the MLM division of IAI.
It provided the Jupiter Space camera with high spectral resolution, up to 50
centimetres and from a height of 600 kilometres, while the Ofek-16camera can
photograph 15 square kilometres in a single shot. Other companies included the
Rafael Advanced Defense System and Tomer, which built the launch engines, as
well as Baer System and Cielo Inertial Systems, for navigation systems and
satellite full autonomy.
Ofek-16
is a satellite designed for advanced optoelectronic reconnaissance, which has
on board a much improved version of the high definition electro-optical imaging
system of the already used Jupiter camera, which is still present in the
OPSAT-3000 satellite, with a resolution further increased to 0.5 meters.
So far
Israel already has ten Ofek satellites operational, but only 13 countries in
the world are capable of launching this type of spacecraft, of which the first
Israeli one was sent into space on September 19, 1988.
Israel,
however, never discloses the precise number of advanced satellites it has in
orbit, but we know that Ofek-9, which will return to earth in two months, is
still operational, in addition to Ofek-11, as well as Ofek-8 (TechSAR 1) and
Ofek-10 (TechSar 2), which are satellites with synthetic aperture radars that
allow continuous strategic control of the ground.
As
usual, the images produced by the Ofek satellites will be analysed by the 9900
Intelligence Unit, but we should also recall the Amos military communication
satellites, whose network covers all the strategically relevant areas of the
world.
It should
be recalled that the 9900 Unit is part of the Israeli Defence Forces and deals
only with Imagery Intelligence (IMINT). Together with the 8200 Unit, which
deals with Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and the 504 Unit, which provides
excellent Human Intelligence (HUMINT) and also sends covert agents everywhere
in the world, it forms the entire military Intelligence, Aman.
Netanyahu
said enigmatically that this new satellite “significantly strengthens Israel’s
defences against near and far opponents”.
Obviously
the reference here is mainly to the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the ability
to control the territory, the movements and the structures is essential to
Israel to monitor the whole Middle East, and not only it.
Now, in
fact, with the Ofek-16 satellite, Israel can observe the whole Middle East and
other regions with great precision.
The
Israeli reference here is to the sending of the first Iranian spy satellite,
launched at the end of last April after several unsuccessful attempts.
The
Islamic “Revolutionary Guard Corps” have in fact sent their first modern spy
satellite, Noor 1(“light”), into space. It was brought into orbit by the
Ghasedrocket, never mentioned before by the Iranian authorities and media.
Undoubtedly,
the Ofek-16satellite is designed to closely monitor the Iranian nuclear
program, but the race for satellite IMINT has now spread to the entire Middle
East and the Maghreb region. In fact, in a few days Tunisia will launch its
self-produced and designed satellite, called Challenge ONE, sent into space by
the historical Russian (indeed, Kazakh) Baikonur Cosmodrome, while the United Arab Emirates
have even launched their own Mars Mission.
The
Emirates reconstituted their Space Agency in 2014 and an Arab Space
Coordination Group was also established in March 2019, with the participation
of Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Egypt.
A new
satellite, which will be called “813”, will be developed at the Emirates’
University in Al Ayn and will be operational in three years. The data will be
reprocessed by a centre in Bahrain.
However,
the Pan-Arab Space Agency’s objective is allegedly to build satellites to
monitor climate change and environmental transformations.
813,
however is the year in which the House of Wisdom was established in Baghdad,
during the reign of Al Ma’mun.
In Egypt
the satellite system is based on TIBA-1, a military satellite designed and
built by Thales, Alenia Space and Airbus, in the historical factories of
Toulouse.
Egypt
also has EgyptSat 2, also called MisrSat 2, built and designed by the Russian
company Energy and the Egyptian company NARSS – a satellite that has been in
operation since 2013.
Saudi
Arabia can also rely on Saudisat 2, 3, 5A and 5B, for communications, in
addition to the World View Scout 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
The
various kinds of Chinese satellites currently in orbit are as many as 363.
China
wants space supremacy over the United States and will make no concessions to it
or, even less, to Europe while, in the future, it could support its allies in
the Middle East.
China
owns a very important anti-satellite system, namely SC-19, a kinetic energy
ASAT vehicle which is launched by a medium range ballistic missile, operating
since 2007, which directly hits an enemy satellite.
China
also owns the Dong-Neng-3 and the Hongqi-19, some anti-satellite missiles
already tested in 2015, while China has also already tested ASAT satellites
with robotic arms for inspections and repairs. Shortly China will even launch
its Mars mission known as “Tianwen-1”, which will be in space in a few days.
With
specific reference to Iran, to which we have already made extensive reference,
the most used base by the Pasdaran and space facilities is the one called “Imam
Khomeini”, which is the main one among the eight Iranian national satellite and
missile sites, located in the Semnan province east of Tehran.
Between
2009 and 2015 about 45 satellites were sent into space from various Iranian
sites, but none of them lasted in orbit more than a few months.
Certainly
the Iranian space launchers are mainly based on the refinement of Iran’s ICBMs.
Iran has also recently established a “Centre for Space Monitoring”, which
mainly uses radar, radio-optical technologies and radio tracking.
There is
already a centre, operational since 2018, which tracks – with specific radars –
all the satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
So far Iran
has mainly two launch vehicles, Safir 1 and Safir 2, which is often called
Simorgh.
In the
Iranian space system, the specialized Agency created in 2004, is under the
control of the Ministry for Information and Communications Technology, but it
depends mainly on the Supreme Space Council, which is chaired by the President
of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
As is
already known, Iran can reproduce ICBM and LCBM missiles and weapons in large
quantities, given the technology that, still today, often results from the
Taepo Dong, No Dong and other missiles developed by North Korea.
Moreover,
during a military parade in late 2019, Iran unveiled an autochthonous ballistic
missile, namely Labbayk-1, which is expected to transform both the Zelzal and
the Fateh-110 traditional Iranian ballistic missiles into guided weapons and
satellite launchers.
In all
likelihood, Iran has already obtained from China and Russia the laser
technologies that “pierce” the atmosphere and allow to hit electronic energy
satellites or kinetic weapons with other advanced technologies or electronic
jamming weapons.
It was
in 1990 that Russia agreed to build and design – together with scientists from
Iran – the first modern military and civilian nuclear power plant.
In 2012,
however, Iran and North Korea signed an agreement “for Civilian and
Technological Scientific Cooperation”, which so far has been a great transfer
of military and, above all, nuclear technology.
Iran has
also proved to have remarkable ability to modify or blind the GPS systems.
In 2011,
Iran claimed it had forced a U.S. RQ-170 drone to land within its borders,
after having disrupted and manipulated its communications with the reference
satellite, as well as its GPS receiver.
An
Iranian base in one of the many islands in the Strait of Hormuz has been long
modifying the communications of aircrafts and ships so that they
unintentionally arrive in Iranian territorial waters and are captured by it.
Also in
2019, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
notified the rest of the world of the construction and commencement of an
autonomous system of hardware for cyberwarfare and coverage of adverse jamming,
a system called Seperh 110, which is supposed to cover all cyberwarfare
operational units.
This
year, the “Iran’s Centre for Autonomous Jihad and Research” has announced it has
built a portable anti-jamming system which, as Iran claims, would even be able
to identify and destroy drones.
Iran has
already demonstrated its cybercapabilities: some operations have already been
made against U.S. critical infrastructure, as well as the 2012 Distributed
Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, against some U.S. banks and telecommunication
companies, which led to a loss of over 5 million U.S. dollars.
Again in 2019, the FBI was the target of
covert access and data removal operations – probably coming from Iran-
concerning U.S. satellite technologies.
Iran has
also built the Shamoon computer virus, which is capable of destroying and
cancelling entire internal computer systems. In some periods of 2019, Iranian
attacks on computer networks were estimated at almost 500 million per day.
Meanwhile,
Israel is developing the intelligence saturated combat model – albeit it is
still in a non-operational phase – by combining artificial intelligence, data
fusion from various sources, augmented reality and big data.
The 3D
mapping that is provided is absolutely realistic. It should be recalled that it
was Israel that responded – for the first time – to a cyberattack with a
conventional counter-attack, to destroy the cyber headquarters of Hamas in
early May 2019.
Hence
currently the Middle East balance of satellite weapons and weapon systems that
depend on space networks is infinitely more complex than we can imagine.
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/07/15/the-israeli-military-satellite-ofek-16/
***Giancarlo
Elia Valori, Advisory Board Co-chair Honoris Causa Professor Giancarlo Elia
Valori is an eminent Italian economist and businessman. He holds prestigious
academic distinctions and national orders. Mr. Valori has lectured on
international affairs and economics at the world’s leading universities such as
Peking University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Yeshiva
University in New York. He currently chairs “International World Group”, he is
also the honorary president of Huawei Italy, economic adviser to the Chinese
giant HNA Group. In 1992 he was appointed Officier de la Légion d’Honneur de la
République Francaise, with this motivation: “A man who can see across borders
to understand the world” and in 2002 he received the title “Honorable” of the
Académie des Sciences de l’Institut de France. “