NEW DELHI: India needs to have space-based offensive weapons in the future, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said on Saturday, even as he also called for the country to have a full-fledged military space doctrine amid the increasing weaponization and contestation of the final frontier.
The IAF chief’s emphasis on effectively exploiting the entire space domain, rather than restricting it largely to ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and communication purposes as is the case now, comes in the wake of China’s rapid advances in developing deadly space and counter-space capabilities that has even the US alarmed.
Both Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and the IAF chief have in recent days stressed the need for India to develop both defensive and offensive capabilities in the space domain.
On Saturday, speaking at a conclave here, ACM Chaudhari said India should build on the success of “Mission Shakti”, under which an anti-satellite (A-Sat) interceptor missile was used to destroy the 740-kg Microsat-R satellite at an altitude of 283-km in the low earth orbit (LEO) in March 2019.
“In the future, instead of having purely land-based offensive systems, we should also have space-based offensive systems. It will reduce the response time…The future lies in having space-based offensive platforms,” he said.
“The space domain will percolate and have its effects across all other domains of warfare,” ACM Chaudhari said, dwelling upon how the Indian armed forces transitioned from depending on the high-altitude MiG-25 “Foxbat” aircraft for “strategic reconnaissance” in the 1980s and 1990s to space-based assets like satellites now.
Similarly, citing the examples of the US and France air forces, the IAF will also have to transform from “air-power” to “aerospace power” in the years ahead. “In the future, the IAF will be called upon to take part in space situational awareness, space denial exercises or space control exercises,” he said.
China, after testing its first A-Sat missile in January 2007, has set a scorching pace in building and deploying anti-satellite weapons from direct ascent missiles and co-orbital killers to directed-energy lasers, electromagnetic pulse weapons, jammers and cyberweapons.
The People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force, which is a theatre command-level organization, focuses on degrading or destroying satellites of adversaries that are vital for ISR, communications, missile early-warning, precision-targeting and other such purposes. China has also doubled the number of its satellites in just the last three-four years to have over 700 operational ones now.
The US, too, has a full-fledged Space Force as a distinct branch of its armed forces. In contrast, India still does not have an Aerospace Command, having created just a small tri-service Defence Space Agency in 2019 after much dithering.
The IAF chief’s emphasis on effectively exploiting the entire space domain, rather than restricting it largely to ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and communication purposes as is the case now, comes in the wake of China’s rapid advances in developing deadly space and counter-space capabilities that has even the US alarmed.
Both Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and the IAF chief have in recent days stressed the need for India to develop both defensive and offensive capabilities in the space domain.
On Saturday, speaking at a conclave here, ACM Chaudhari said India should build on the success of “Mission Shakti”, under which an anti-satellite (A-Sat) interceptor missile was used to destroy the 740-kg Microsat-R satellite at an altitude of 283-km in the low earth orbit (LEO) in March 2019.
“In the future, instead of having purely land-based offensive systems, we should also have space-based offensive systems. It will reduce the response time…The future lies in having space-based offensive platforms,” he said.
“The space domain will percolate and have its effects across all other domains of warfare,” ACM Chaudhari said, dwelling upon how the Indian armed forces transitioned from depending on the high-altitude MiG-25 “Foxbat” aircraft for “strategic reconnaissance” in the 1980s and 1990s to space-based assets like satellites now.
Similarly, citing the examples of the US and France air forces, the IAF will also have to transform from “air-power” to “aerospace power” in the years ahead. “In the future, the IAF will be called upon to take part in space situational awareness, space denial exercises or space control exercises,” he said.
China, after testing its first A-Sat missile in January 2007, has set a scorching pace in building and deploying anti-satellite weapons from direct ascent missiles and co-orbital killers to directed-energy lasers, electromagnetic pulse weapons, jammers and cyberweapons.
The People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force, which is a theatre command-level organization, focuses on degrading or destroying satellites of adversaries that are vital for ISR, communications, missile early-warning, precision-targeting and other such purposes. China has also doubled the number of its satellites in just the last three-four years to have over 700 operational ones now.
The US, too, has a full-fledged Space Force as a distinct branch of its armed forces. In contrast, India still does not have an Aerospace Command, having created just a small tri-service Defence Space Agency in 2019 after much dithering.
