Patriot Games (1992) - Satellites CIA analyst Jack Ryan and his team are trying to find an IRA training camp in North Africa using Imagery and Geospatial Intelligence (IMINT and GEOINT).
I would not expect Tom Clancy to know this, particularly in 1987 when Patriot Games was written, but electro-optical satellites (even Talent Keyhole reconnaissance satellites) take imagery from nadir to very oblique angles. "Retasking" a satellite is not a terribly big deal, really it amounts to shuffling the satellites target deck so that the intended target is earlier or later in the lineup so that the satellite views it from a different position. And while I love the idea of the FMV satellite feed over the camp when they attack, such a thing is just not that feasable with even current technology. This presumes that he is talking about changing the targeting order and not something like changing the orbit. They (the NRO) do not change satellite orbits for anyone. At the time of the book and later the movie, NASA and USGS was the primary source of overhead unclassified imagery to draw from when doing research into such things. Much of it was (very) low resolution, and often was restricted to near nadir shots to maximize apparent ground resolution. Thus oblique shots were hard to come by.
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This was 30 years ago. Now they could read the tattoo writing on the woman's boob. No photo recon, all digital and more powerful. The real -time level of resolution would amaze you. They wouldn't send in SAS, they'd use drones and wipe them all out. No big deal. Boom.
Read a tattoo from an orbital satellite? I'm skeptical. From a surveillance drone, sure. From a satellite, through atmospheric distortions? I doubt it.
It’s not a big surprise that weapons used in the Lord Homes incident were traced to an arms dealer that supplied Gaddafi - he was a big supplier of the IRA.
_"Do you have any idea how big a deal it is to re-task those satellites?"_ Of course, if the enemy knows when the satellites will be overhead and can hide from them, then what's the point? They're useless for their intended purpose until you re-task them. The job may be hard to do, but the logic behind why to do it isn't.
Every time they refer to ‘the bad guy’ just remember the state department was responsible for them in the first place and the agency is just cleaning up the loose ends.
Retasking reconnaissance satellites are a godawful mess of orbital paths, fuel budgets, electrical resources, not to mention the cost! It's possible, but they don't just do it for no single terrorist group. But OTOH, retasking the birds also means that the satellite office will get VERY busy looking at other assets and resources that are unaware of the changes made. A bonanza for everybody that's hunting for Threats.
My grandfather told my parents one day he was working clerk for a big commander (First gulf war I think), anyway he usually went by John to most people he clerked but this commander who it was obvious was a Tom Clancy fan (this was around PG) kept asking why aren't you SAS? The answer was his eyesight, grandfather received it from his dad.
Horner was kinda notorious for recycling some of his own music from earlier films. But there was still enough original material there to make each soundtrack unique from his other works.
Yep.. Horner definitely recycled his own music.. like how you hear the leitmotif for Khan at the start of Enemy at the Gates. But.. he and other composers are also standing on the shoulders of giants. Both he and John Williams borrowed from Holst (Star Wars and Star Trek) and Tchaikovsky (Home Alone and Star Trek as well).
they use whoever is closest to the target really, North Africa is sort of where the SAS was operating at the time, I do believe in the book it was French SF since they operate in Africa too
They would have used the SAS for political reasons. Technically, America wasn't at war with the IRA, and it would have pissed off a lot of Irish-Americans if American special forces were used.
@@gaelicreaction1049Exactly, and the SAS would have already been conducting direct and covert action against paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.
American institutions were packed with IRA sympathisers over the years, it wouldn't have taken much for one of them to secretly mention the likely satellite timings.
@ReaverLordTonus Because satellites are easy to see and amateurs can create almanacs of them based on their location and trajectory (KH satellites are in low polar orbits for 100% coverage of the Earth).
All you have to is call it cooperative intelligence sharing, and maybe throw a few million in operational funding their way, and SAS will hit just about anything on earth.
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Satellite technology, even in the ‘90s, was way better than that. They could zoom in enough to see the rank on soldiers’ shoulders. There’s a funny inside story about the second Hubble Telescope. If you put a dime on top of the Washington Monument in DC, you could read the writing on it with the Hubble from LA. NASA had a back-up Hubble they never launched and offered it to the National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO turned them down saying it was too large and they had better, smaller things anyway. The NRO then handed down two older telescopes to NASA that were better than the Hubble. www.space.com/16000-spy-satellites-space-telescopes-nasa.html
Wouldn’t they need to rotate the solar panels 180° to use a hubble class sat to look at the earth. Plus the fact that they would have opposite light sensitivity requirement…
Didn't NASA take ex spy sat tech and use it for the Mar's mapping missions? I feel like I heard a story similar to yours, they basically gave them the satellites and told this was old equipment and the NRO had better stuff they would be using.
@@Swarm509 they did. The NRO gave them two older telescopes, from the 70s I believe, that were equal to or better than the Hubble. They were outdated tech to the NRO.
