Space is an amazing place, you can escape the world through it or you can destroy the world by dropping a bomb through it. With defence technologies becoming increasingly deadly, it’s important for any country to develop their own space deterrence technologies to defend themselves from above.
India is one of those countries understanding the
importance of this geopolitical development and has been actively investing in
space and space related applications. Under the motherhood of ISRO, India has
been constantly working on technologies for civilian use but what has caught up
most eyes is its involvement in development of next-gen technologies for
defence applications.
For a country like India which dreams of becoming a superpower in the near future, it's justified why they have been developing their own Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capabilities by building data processing units across the world.
Under ISRO
Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), ISRO launched a programme
named Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC),
to build a world-wide infrastructure to track and communicate with India's
space assets and provide the country with a precise and effective deterrence tool
so as to defend against any incoming hypersonic projectile with a potential
nuclear warhead. The system provides India to reduce its time lag of activating
the nuclear doctrine.
Under TTC, India has been able to established tacker systems in Port Louis in Mauritius, Bear Lakes in Russia, Biak in Indonesia, Brunei, Svalbard in Norway, Troll in Antarctica, Vietnam, Gatun Lake in Panama, Sao Tome and Principe in West Africa.
Another project code named Project NETRA or the Network for Space object tracking and Analysis was launched recently to add on to India's Space Situational Awareness Capabilities.
This system guarantees effective deterrence against
incoming threat via space by supporting the Prithvi Air Defence system and also the anti-satellite defence
system under project Mission Shakti.
NETRA efficiently combines with the pre-programmed chip of Shakti defence
system for active retaliation against threat to India's space assets in Low
Earth Orbit and has future plans to extend the range up to 36000 km.
The ongoing expansion of Indian defence in the fifth
domain of warfare that is space, only after land, air, sea and cyber can well
be linked to the recent events faced by the country. India is trying to go solo
and self-reliant in cutting edge technologies to support its key assets without
the fear of foreign intervention or effect of international sanctions. With the
new education policy announced, it is clear that India is now focusing on
making the country future ready with prime focus on cyber world. As the world
is moving away from a non-aligned movement and everyone is trying to make their
group stronger and capable, both in terms of economy and diplomacy, India needs
to be vigilant before making any decision on geopolitical front.
Communication and intelligence are the base of any
war and a country's space assets ensure the relay of those aspects. Destroying
the entire communication system of a country means under supply of any external
intelligence as well as internal data sharing. So, it's important for a country
like India which heavily depends of its military and communication satellites
for data communication, to develop deterrence technologies to protect its land
and sovereignty.
Note : All images used in this post has been taken from Google Images and the copyright of each of the images lies with their copyright holders.
The views expressed above are personal and belong to the author.
This post has been written by Rishav Kumar.
Also See : Is Indian Ocean the Next Battleground?, Bleeding China!! Is this the Beginning of the End?, India's Nuclear Ambitions, India's Future Plans : Exploring Space
No comments:
Post a Comment