Space programs.

• Author: Thompson, Loren B.
• Position: Readers' Forum

* Thank you for the July update on the status of the nation's two most advanced infrared-sensing satellites, the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and the Space Tracking and Surveillance System [STSS]. The story (Troubled Space-Based Infrared Satellite Program Finally Gets Off the Ground, p. 18) was a useful reminder that it takes many years, sometimes decades, to design, develop, test and produce advanced military systems. Our political culture operates on a more compressed schedule, and thus many costly systems are canceled long before they reach fruition, often with critics complaining that the technology' has become "out of date."

It is true that both SBIRS and STSS incorporate design features conceived some time ago, but they are capable of doing their respective missions far more effectively than any other systems currently in the joint inventory, and nothing better can be developed anytime soon. If SBIRS were delayed, the United States would lose its ability to generate timely and detailed warning of hostile missile launches. If the technology utilized by STSS is not orbited in a complete constellation, our military will have no continuous capacity to...