Issue 103

14 Aug: Friend of the Flash, Nicolas Pillet, offers his review of how Russia is attempting to increase their use of space intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets in support of Ukrainian operations. He notes that Russia has recently conducted tests using its Gonets constellation to command and control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Signals Intelligence

– Russia has significantly increased its quantity of space-based Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) satellites since the beginning of the war.

– From 2010-20, Russia had launched a total of 3 Lotos-S1 satellites (2014-086A, 2017-076A, 2018-082A) and two of them failed years before their expected lifespan, probably because of malfunctions.

– Beginning in 2021 Russia has launched no less than 5 satellites. 2 prior to the Ukraine invasion and 3 afterwards.

– 4 were additional Lotos-S1 (2021-008A, 2022-036A, 2022-163A, 2023-165A), and the 5th was the first Pion-NKS (2021-056A). All were designed and built under the responsibility of Moscow TsNIRTI (Central Research Institute for Radiotechnics), who develop the SIGINT payload internally and subcontracts the satellite bus to Saint-Petersburg KB Arsenal.

– Russia used the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicles to place Lotos-S1 spacecraft in their 900km x 900km x 67.1° orbits.

– Pion-NKS also detects electromagnetic signals, but can also collect Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery.

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Earth observation

– Russia’s capacity to observe the Earth lags far behind other space powers such as China, the US or European Union.

– Beginning in early 2022, the Russians have launched two radar observation satellites (Neytron and Kondor-FKA), three Bars-M cartography satellites, one Resurs-P very high-resolution satellite and four unidentified satellites (Cosmos 2555 <no longer in orbit>, Cosmos 2568, Cosmos 2574, Cosmos 2572) with orbital parameters typical for optical intelligence collection.

– The Russian commercial space company, SPUTNIX, began the deployment of the Zorky-2M constellation in 2023. There are 4 Zorky-2M satellites in orbit.

– The Zorky-2M are 12U-type Cubesats with a multispectral capacity and a resolution of 2.75 m.

– Sputnix intends to launch 28 more in the next few years to complete a 32-satellite constellation.

– Both the high-level system engineering and the optical system design are made by private companies that do not belong to traditional Russian space industry.

– Russia continues to struggle to meet the needs of its units operating in Ukraine. ChVK Vagner private military company bought at least two Jilin-1 Chinese satellites directly in orbit.

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UAV Test Flight Using Gonets Constellation

– In July 2024, Roscosmos announced that the Gonets company successfully tested the control of a Geoscan 201 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) through the Gonets satellite constellation. The experiment was conducted at the Pushistyi aerodrome on Sakhalin Island.

– Testing included telemetry reception throughout the flight and the remotely controlled landing at the predetermined point.

– Gonets are small communication satellites — called ‘messaging’ satellites, in Russian nomenclature – in 1,400 km orbits. They allow the transmission of SMS-like messages from and to anywhere on Earth. They are more on less a precursor to Iridium or Starlink, but with much more limited capacity.

– Russia launched the first Gonets in 1996, and fifteen Gonets-M are operational at this moment. Reshetnev company is now developing a new generation, called Gonets-M1.

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The UAV control experiment was 100% civilian. However, the concept can easily be used for military purpose as well. And the link with the Defense industry is not very far: the vehicle used to qualify the technology is provided by Geoscan, a company partially owned since 2023 by the Innopraktika foundation, which is headed by Vladimir Putin’s daughter. For its involvement in the war in Ukraine, Geoscan was sanctioned by US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on June 12th, 2024.