Phoenix Echo

Phoenix Echo was the codeword for a top secret plan, developed in the mid-1980s by a small office in the Pentagon, in conjunction with the National Security Agency (NSA), to electronically disrupt low-flying Soviet reconnaissance satellites. The plan was to establish a number of earth stations worldwide that would track the heights and orbits of Soviet satellites that obtained real-time imagery of U. S. and allied installations and ground forces. This information would then be relayed to the J-3EW (Electronic warfare) office of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. In theory, the EW office could then order ground stations to disrupt the satellite downlinks.

Plan proves to be unworkable

Although some earth stations were established by the U. S. Air Force, the plan proved to be cumbersome and unworkable. The J-3EW section was physically separated from the National Military Command Center (NMCC), which has primary responsibility for U. S. military responses in time of crisis. Additionally, because of unnecessary secrecy surrounding Phoenix Echo, only a handful of people knew its capabilities and limitations. Often, the Phoenix Echo office was managed by a single officer (most recently a U S. Navy commander), and no one else. The project was opposed by the Military Command Centers Division of the C3 Directorate (since renamed J6) and the Defense Communications Agency (since renamed the Defense Information Systems Agency) on the grounds that no small group of officers should have the authority, by themselves, to disrupt Soviet satellites. The J3EW staff defended the project on the grounds that LTG Jack N. Merritt, USA, then Director of the Joint Staff had a personal interest in it and required regular briefings on its status.

Current status

Phoenix Echo was disestablished and declassified in the mid-1990s.

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