Pentagon Says It Will Not Rely on Russian, Chinese Weather Satellites

摘要

The U.S. Defense Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are still developing a plan to obtain weather satellite coverage of the Middle East and Afghanistan but will not rely on Chinese or Russian satellites, a Pentagon official said. U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for that broad region, has been relying on Europe's geostationary-orbiting Meteosat-7 satellite for constant weather coverage. But . in 2014, Europe's civilian meteorological satellite organization, known as Eumetsat, said it would not replace Meteosat-7, which launched in 2006 and is expected to reach its end of life in 2017.