POPPY Program

On Monday, September 12th, 2005 the National Reconnaissanse Office (NRO) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) announched the declassification of the POPPY Surveillance Satellite Program.

POPPY was a series of electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellites operated in the 1960's and 1970's, whose primary purpose was the detection, tracking, and classification of Soviet naval radars (correlating to Soviet warship movements). Primary users of POPPT SIGINT data were the Naval Security Groups (NAVSECGRUs) forward deployed in places like Spain and Japan.

A complete copy of the release statement can be found here.

As a follow-up, the Soviet Union also operated a similar system of ELINT satellites designed to monitor the movements of NATO fleets and ships. It was called ELINT Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite (EORSAT) by NATO, and details of that system can be found here.