NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday joined an exclusive club of nations that have the ability to kill the enemy’s eyes in the sky to safeguard their space-based assets, taking the first step towards building its Space Command.
Called Mission Shakti, India used an anti-satellite (A-SAT) missile from a defence base off the Odisha coast to knock off its own live satellite that was on a low earth orbit (LEO) at a height of 300 km.
Only three other nations - the US, Russia and China - have demonstrated this technology so far.
Addressing the nation after the successful test, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “India today registered itself as a space power,” adding it was a deterrent and not directed against any country."
“The A-SAT missile will give new strength to India’s space programme. I assure the international community that our capability won’t be used against anyone. It’s India’s defence initiative for its own security,” he emphasised.
According to Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retd), a national security expert, India’s attempts to acquire technology to safeguard its space assets started with China’s demonstration of the capability in 2007 when it conducted a similar test.
“We have already demonstrated anti-ballistic missile capability - shooting down objects up to 80 km above earth. Commercial satellites are placed at higher orbits as opposed to military satellites, which mostly are in low earth orbits. Targeting and successfully achieving the result at a much higher altitude is a big achievement by way of deterrence. It proves that if an enemy were to weaponise space and threaten us, India can counteract it effectively,” added Air Marshal Chopra.
Former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair said, “A-SAT demonstration is unique and a big movement towards strengthening the country’s overall defence mechanism. If any hostile country were to place a satellite to spy on us, India now has the counter technology.”
India is a signatory to the UN convention on outer space and subscribes to the UN viewpoint that it should not be weaponised for the launch of offensive systems.
“But the country has to be ready to safeguard its vital space assets and parry hostile interventions that can impact it,” said Nair, who also was the Space Commission chief and Secretary in the Department of Space from 2003 to 2009.
Speaking on Mission Shakti, former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist Dr Ravi Gupta said the technology was available since 2010 but not demonstrated till now.
Explaining the rationale, Dr Gupta said it is always up to the political leadership to take a decision on when technology should be demonstrated.
A senior retired IAF official said, “The demonstration of space power has taken us a step closer towards India’s own Space Command. We have an anti-missile capability. Now we have demonstrated kill technology that can be operated by the services.”