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(S) Improving and Expanding War Zone Collection
FROM:
FORNSAT Division (S3312)
Run Date: 01/13/2006
(TS//SI) The new MAGICHELION system greatly improves NSA's ability to collect against the
THURAYA satellite.
(TS//SI) NSA is dramatically upgrading its ability to collect against satellite communications in
the Middle East. As a milestone, on 1 November 2005 the first MAGICHELION system "went live"
at the SCS site in Kuwait City. MAGICHELION will replace the existing PARHELION systems
throughout the Middle East as NSA's THURAYA satellite L-Band collection system.
(TS//SI) THURAYA has become one of the Intelligence Community's highest priority targets
since 11 September 2001, when it became almost the sole source of communications in and out
of Afghanistan and now for Iraq as well. THURAYA is known to be used by high-ranking
members of Usama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terrorist network. Intelligence derived from
THURAYA collection has been directly responsible for the capture and/or termination
of known terrorists in both countries.
(TS//SI) MAGICHELION deployment represents the culmination of two years of intense and
dedicated efforts by FORNSAT engineers to re-architect and improve NSA's aging network of
Thuraya L-Band collectors. While implementing the new collection system on an SCS-approved
Common Site Architecture (CSA) platform, it's estimated the SCOM development team
succeeded in also increasing collection throughput by a factor of about six and reducing
the cost per system by approximately 30%. By summer 2006, the same hardware will host
the next version of software, "MAGICHELION II," which will increase throughput by a factor of
approximately thirty, solely by a software upgrade.
(TS//SI) The Kuwait MAGICHELION system is the first of about seventy procured systems to be
deployed. FORNSAT and SCS are negotiating a deployment schedule to replace all existing
PARHELIONs in concert with SCS CSA site upgrades during 2006. These systems will also be
used to field a collection capability against the anticipated launch of THURAYA's next satellite,
"T3."
(U) THURAYA satellite (NASIC graphic)
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108