audiobook Women on the Civil War Battlefront (Modern War Studies (Hardcover)) by Richard H. Hall in History

Description

Originally published in 1999; America's Space Sentinels won the American Astronautical Society's prestigious Eugene Emme Astronautical Literature Award and quickly established itself as the definitive book for understanding a crucial component of our national defense capabilities. It focused on the emergence and evolution of the Air Force's Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite system; which came on line in 1970 and continued to perform at a high level through the turn of this century and beyond.For this new edition; Jeffrey Richelson covers significant developments during the last dozen years relating to the deployment of these satellites; especially the struggles to develop and launch the follow-on Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS); beginning in the late 1990s and continuing up to the present. The result is a book that remains the first and best source of information regarding these vital programs.As Richelson notes; SBIRS; like its aging but still functioning predecessor; has been designed primarily to provide instant early warning of missile launches from around the globe-particularly China; Russia; North Korea; Pakistan; India; and Iran-through the infra-red sensors carried on each satellite. But the new system—beset by hardware; software; fiscal; and political problems—has only managed to move forward in fits and starts. While it has done so; the DSP system has continued to monitor the skies above the earth; two key ground stations in Australia and Germany have closed; nuclear powers Russia and the United States conferred extensively over the so-called Y2K problem (concerned that a computer malfunction might produce false alarms of a missile attack); and worries over potential launches from nations perceived as hostile to American interests have increased substantially.