The U.S. Air Force plans to launch two space surveillance spacecraft into high-altitude orbits later this year to monitor satellite traffic in the congested geosynchronous belt 22,300 miles above Earth, the head of Space Command has announced.

The previously classified program will help the Air Force track man-made orbiting objects in high-altitude orbits, a region populated by the military's strategic communications and early warning satellites.

The capabilities of existing space surveillance assets on the ground and in orbit a few hundred miles above Earth are limited in detecting satellite movements at higher altitudes, according to military officials.

Known as the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, the initiative was revealed Friday by Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, who described the system as a "neighborhood watch" for satellites. [Top 10 Space Weapons]

"GSSAP will produce a significant improvement in space object surveillance, not only for better collision avoidance but also for detecting threats," Shelton said in a speech at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. "GSSAP will bolster our ability to discern when adversaries attempt to avoid detection and to discover capabilities they may have which might be harmful to our critical assets at these higher altitudes."

The service published a fact sheet on the program in conjunction with Shelton's announcement.

According to the fact sheet, the surveillance project's primary contractor is Orbital Sciences Corp. The GSSAP program's budget and details of the satellites were not released.

The Air Force's Space Based Space Surveillance, or SBSS, satellite launched in 2010 with an optical telescope to peer at spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. But SBSS flies in low Earth orbit about 300 miles high, putting it thousands of miles away from its observational targets.

The GSSAP satellites will be much closer, but the Air Force has not said how close.

"As other nations show their commitment in investing in systems capable of harming our satellites, we are committed to investing in space surveillance assets like GSSAP that will directly enable safe operations, protect our spacecraft, and indirectly enable a range of decisive responses that will enable counterspace threats ineffective," Shelton said.

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Air Force General Reveals New Space Surveillance Program