India's Strategies on Space!! Defending the Space!!

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.

 It is important for the country to not be a part of any block as a result of international pressure. India's space advancement brings the country at par with major players of the world and therefore ensures a safer ecosystem for their economy and a stronger stance in international forums.

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

Is Indian Ocean the Next Battleground?

Satellite Image of Chagos Islands
Image Source : Wikimedia Commons

Connecting Gulf of Eden and Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean emerges as having both strategic and economic importance to the world.

Indian Ocean is the region that caters to 40% of world's oil supply amounting to 64% of oil trade. And with over 34% world population residing in the coastal economies, countries like India, USA, France, UK and China are adamant to increase their military presence here. Stretching across three continents and acting as a junction to various strategically important straits and passes, the ocean comes with a wide range of economic and strategic opportunities.

The ocean is believed to have rich petroleum and oil deposits due to the fact that Persian Gulf which is the largest oil producing basin in the world is located here. The region also provides huge deposits of Manganese nodules, Titanium oxide, Zircon, Chromite and so on. Indian Ocean is home to 23 out of 100 largest sea ports in the world. It carries about half of the world's sea-borne oil. The intra-regional trade accounts to 27.2% of total trade which supports many marine industries. It caters to raw materials for biotechnology, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, seaweed harvesting and marine derived bio-products.

Contributing immensely to the GDP of various economies sharing maritime borders with the Indian Ocean, the power sector has definitely found its way into the huge empire of marine industry with offshore wind, wave and tidal energy production plants being set up at an unprecedented level. Marine tourism, Engineering consultancy, Meteorological Consultancy, Environment consultancy are some of the major beneficiaries of this industry with Marine tourism taking the maximum share of the business.

However the region has seen an increase in piracy cases contributing to 40% of global piracy incidents, and is accompanied by concerning actions by few regional superpowers which has added to the instability in the region.

Economically powerful countries don't shy away from claiming what's not theirs', and in the name of national interest, they have turned the Indian Ocean into a battleground. This battleground is one of the most prosperous regions in the world but due to the ongoing tussle among the neighbours here, one spark can bring down the entire global economy and can very well be the breeding ground for World War III. Certainly Indian Ocean in this present situation has become an OCEAN THAT MATTERS.

 

The views expressed above are personal and belong to the author.

This post has been written by Rishav Kumar.

Also See : Bleeding China!! Is this the Beginning of the End?, India's Nuclear Ambitions, India's Future Plans: Exploring Space, India's Strategies on Space!! Defending the Space!!