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Aaron Bateman

@aaronbateman.bsky.social
3.5K followers 234 following 238 posts

Assist. Prof. of History & Intl Affairs at George Washington U. | Book #1 : "Weapons in Space" | Book #2 "Wiring an Empire" (contracted w/ MIT Press)

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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Recruitment ad from the 1950s for technical manpower to operate and maintain the DEW Line radars and White Alice communications networks, key parts of the early U.S. NC3 infrastructure.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I'm delighted to share that our inaugural workshop "Intelligence in the Southern Hemisphere: Past and Present" at Macquarie University in Sydney was a great success. We look forward to continuing the conversation at future events!
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
It's always a good time visiting NASA's Deep Space Communications Network site near Canberra, Australia. Watching the kangaroos grazing nearby was an added bonus.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The declassified 1962 memo for the UK prime minister informing him (in shakespearean prose) that the US accidentally fried Britain's Ariel satellite with its Starfish Prime nuclear test.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
David Holloway's new tome on the international history of nuclear weapons has arrived!
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Thanks so much to True Anomaly for having me out to their facility in Colorado to talk about my book "Weapons in Space." I thoroughly enjoyed touring their satellite fabrication facility and seeing some of their space defense projects. It's a very interesting time in the commercial space arena!
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This is a declassified 1981 memo from Richard Allen (then national security advisor) about a recent test of the Soviet Union's co-orbital anti-satellite weapon. The Soviets were testing out a new optical sensor for target acquisition.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Declassified 1982 study about improving the survivability of U.S. military and intelligence space systems.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Some of the recently declassified images of the NRO's Cold War-era JUMPSEAT HEO signals intelligence satellite program. lnkd.in/eGym2xBj
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
The National Reconnaissance Office has declassified limited details about JUMPSEAT, a Cold War-era signals intelligence satellite program in HEO. www.nro.gov/news-media-f...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Great discussion about subsea cable security at IISS in Singapore. The office view is pretty great too.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Beautiful view this morning of the Singapore Strait
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Cold War-era subsea cable collections at the National Archives of Singapore.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Many thanks to Will James for hosting me at RSIS (Nanyang Technological University) in Singapore to give a talk on U.S. Spacepower and alliance politics from the Cold War to today.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I’m looking forward to giving a talk in Singapore next week on the role of terrestrial space infrastructure in shaping US alliances from the Cold War to today. If you are Singapore based and interested in attending, registration details can be found below: rsis.edu.sg/event/rsis-s...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
I'm pleased to share my open access article in International Security on the role of allies in U.S. space power. direct.mit.edu/isec/article...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
I'm thrilled to have an article in the fall volume of International Security on the role of allies in U.S. space power during the Cold War!
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Many thanks to RUSI for hosting me in London to talk about space security and the transatlantic alliance from the Cold War to today
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Beautiful approach into Heathrow this morning
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
I'm happy to share that my second book, Wiring an Empire: Information Networks and U.S. Global Power in the Cold War, is under advance contract with MIT Press.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Interesting new article in JSS about Norwegian-US nuclear intelligence sharing www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
From a 1978 NDAA authorization hearing, the U.S. Worldwide Military Command and Control System
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I'm thrilled and honored to see that my book, Weapons in Space, has been placed on the Chief of the Air Staff's (U.K. Royal Air Force) 2025 reading list. airspacepower.com/wp-content/u...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Found this in the Australian National Archives: message from Sep 1914 that describes when German forces landed on Fanning Island to cut the British Pacific Cable.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
This is the declassified effectiveness criteria, from the late '80s, for SDI. The JCS intended for it to be able to destroy 50% of an SS-18 attack and 30% of all other Soviet missile systems. I discuss this in chapter six of my book. BL: 100% was never the *official* goal.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Satellite tracking station on Ascension Island. Since the 1960s, the facility has supported US missile tests and satellite launches from Cape Canaveral.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
I thoroughly enjoyed driving out to the Deep Space Communications Complex outside Canberra, Australia that is used to track and communicates w/ NASA spacecraft. The site played a critical role in the Apollo program. Quite a sight seeing sheep grazing near the gigantic antennas.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Early cybersecurity: this declassified 1982 memo discusses potential Soviet exploitation of commercially provided computer database services
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Declassified memo from Gus Weiss on computer exports to China in the early 1980s
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
That time the US briefed senior Vatican officials on SDI as a measure to get the pope on the administration’s side. This declassified memo is the prelude to the first of multiple
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Strategic Air Command “Concept of Deterrence”
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Declassified memo for President Kennedy outlining command and control challenges
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Returning to a classic
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Declassified CIA graphic from the 1980s that shows the Soviet military (and intelligence) presence abroad.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
“Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin” Soviet space tracking vessel, the largest of its kind
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Nice photo of one of the antennas at the National Security Agency's Stonehouse site in Ethiopia that was used until ~1977 to collect telemetry from Soviet spacecraft (among other intelligence activities)
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
50 free copies of my article, "Hunting the Red Bear: Satellite Reconnaissance and the 'Second Offset Strategy' in the Late Cold War" are available here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/MG7WP...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
This is a really interesting (and rare) declassified document on the effects of Soviet communications security on U.S. ocean surveillance in the 1970s.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
This open access article by Mary Bridges on the infrastructural turn in historical scholarship is really fantastic. Highly recommend. www.cambridge.org/core/service...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Declassified study from the early 1960s on the security advantages of satellite communications over other transmission technologies. The observation about traffic analysis is esp. interesting.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
The first shipborne satellite communications terminal in 1963. That radome protected a 30 ft antenna.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
I'm looking forward to speaking at Princeton's Center for International Security Studies today on the role of space in U.S. alliances.
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Bletchley Park has released this great interactive map about the Y Stations used to intercept German radio during the Second World War. It’s a nice window into early signals intelligence collection infrastructure. bletchleypark.org.uk/y-stations/
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Here's a mention of Zircon in Bill Odom's diary, which is available at the Library of Congress
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
All the transatlantic submarine cables (~1980)
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
When you find your favorite submarine cable map on a tea towel
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Declassified U.K. intelligence note from the early 1960s concerning the Soviet Union using oceanographic vessels to conduct clandestine intelligence gathering off the coast of Britain. Some things never change...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Perhaps not well know that Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers) was heavily involved in a series of consequential studies on the future of command and control in the Kennedy admin
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Recently released GAO report on CJADC2 that provides some new insights into this umbrella of programs for improving US and allied global command and control www.gao.gov/assets/gao-2...
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Aaron Bateman @aaronbateman.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
My review of the volume NATO and the Strategic Defense Initiative (ed. Luc-Andre Brunet) issforum.org/ISSF/PDF/RE1...
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