German Army Commissions First Spy Satellite

The German military commissioned its first spy-in-the-sky satellite system on Thursday, Dec. 4 enabling it to peek through clouds or the darkness of night at any spot on the planet.>> The synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system uses five satellites that bounce radar pulses off the earth. Sophisticated computers convert the returning signals into a picture of the ground that can resolve features just 50 centimeters in width.>> Germany is to share the data with France, which operates Helios II military satellites that photograph the ground in the daytime.>> The 350-million-euro ($445-million) German system, code- named SAR-Lupe, became operational in the summer and was officially handed over to the military Thursday by the builders, OHB System. The ground station is in the town of Grafschaft.>> Defense officials said Germany will be able to take radar pictures of any place at about 10 hours' notice, the time it takes for a satellite to arrive overhead and for the picture to be compiled.>> Vice Admiral Wolfram Kuehn, deputy chief of the armed forces, said the system meant Germany no longer needed to depend on US data.>> "The Kosovo conflict in 1999 demonstrated to us how important it was to have your own worldwide reconnaissance capability," he said.>> The military could have also used such as system with its troops in Afghanistan or while assisting victims of the December 2003 Indian Ocean tsunami.>> Radar pictures are not as fine-grained as photography from space, which clearly shows people and pets, as users of map websites know.