Intelligence: Germany commissions its first spy satellite system

Germany now has its own spy satellite system after commissioning its first synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system in Grafschaft, a small town in western Germany, on Thursday.

The SAR system meant Germany no longer needed to depend on U.S. data, said Vice Admiral Wolfram Kuehn. "The Kosovo conflict in 1999 demonstrated to us how important it was to have your own worldwide reconnaissance capability."

Tthe system consists of five satellites and a ground station in Grafschaft. The satellites can bounce radar pulses off the earth, and then through sophisticated computers, the returning signals are converted into a picture of the ground that can resolve features just 50 centimeters in width.

Published by Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting
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