The top secret URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH satellites

The U.S. Air Force operated a secretive satellite program beginning in 1963 that deployed small subsatellites, known by names like URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH, to collect electronic intelligence (ELINT) by intercepting radar and signals from orbit. Initially designed as inexpensive, quickly-developed systems to target emerging threats, these satellites evolved by the 1970s into standardized operational platforms that provided tactical intelligence support to military forces worldwide rather than exclusively to national leadership. Significant details about this program spanning over 40 years were only recently declassified and made public within the past two months.