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India In Outer Space -
Emerging Concerns

By Rizwana Abbasi

29 January, 2008
Countercurrents.org

Today India is surging ahead to bolster its image as a powerhouse of advanced Space technology. It is all the more surprising that it was only in the late 1960s that India embarked on its Space Programme on a rather modest scale by establishing the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was instrumental in staging the first of its low capability projects in the initial stages.

Earlier experiments and investments opened up opportunities for testing the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3), which proved successful. From then on India began to advance by leaps and bounds. It soon started testing a range of SLVs which followed the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLVs), the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the more powerful Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The modernisation of such duel use technologies enhanced Indian capabilities in space and profoundly influenced the South Asian strategic balance. From the 1980s, India jumped into Ballistic Missile superiority by developing its Integrated Guided Missile Programme (IGMDP), which followed the Satellite programme, anti-tank, surface to air, Prithvi and Agni Missiles.

The success of these developments allowed India to achieve rapid superiority in its advanced Satellite Programme. Building upon the success of the Aryabhatta, Bhaskara and Rohini satellites, India started to build high capability satellites, notably the Indian National Satellite (INSAT). The dual purpose INSAT system at present has ten satellites in operation: INSAT-2E, INSAT-3A, INSAT-3B, INSAT-3C, INSAT-3E, KALPANA-1, GSAT-2 and EDUSAT, INSAT-4A and INSAT-4B. The dual purpose GSLV launches INSAT satellites. The INSAT system is a joint venture by the Department of Space (DOS), Department of Telecommunications (DOT), India Meteorological Department (IMD), All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, the public television broadcaster in India. It is undeniably one of the largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia Pacific Region.

The year 2007 has proved to be another significant milestone for the Indian Space Programme. It has brought a significant lead for India, which launched the PLSV-C7 and PSLV-C8 on 10 January and 23 April 2007 respectively. The PSLV-C7 established the Indian capability to launch satellites and bring them back to earth successfully. This venture introduced a new era in launch vehicle and satellite technology development which was an undoubted success and an essential step towards Indian manned space flight. It enhanced Indian capabilities to its global satellite launch business. India has joined the elite club of nations by deploying space exploration resources for commercial use. The PSLV-C8 carried an Italian satellite (AGILE) into a low earth orbit. The GSLV-F04 was launched successfully on 2 September 2007 carrying INSAT-4CR into the desired orbit. It is the largest satellite launched by an Indian launcher so far. The launch of GSLV Mk III is already scheduled for 2008-9. An Israeli military intelligence satellite, TechSAR, will be sent into orbit by an Indian rocket, the PSLV, in coming months: after this India could boost its intelligence gathering capability extensively. Above all, India is going to launch its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-I in April 2008, and Chandrayaan-II in 2011-12. In these developments India received help from the US, Russia, Israel and Europe.

Furthermore, India intends to build a constellation of seven satellites, the Indian regional Navigation Satellite system, a NAVSTAR system which will start functioning by 2012. This project will navigate telecommunication, transport, disaster areas and public safety networks along with other regional activities. Such technology plays an increasingly crucial military role, not only in the development of missiles, but in providing sophisticated intelligence, communications and navigation. Moreover, such is the nature of these projects that these satellites will keep the entire region under the watch of India.

India has frequently asserted that its space program is focused largely on the scientific and commercial uses of space. Undeniably, it will provide India with high quality military satellite intelligence. In technical terms, the civilian and military satellite systems are scarcely different one from the other. Orbital imagers and communications satellites are examples of dual-use technologies. According to a US Congressional Research Service report, “the distinction between military and civilian launches is arbitrary to a certain extent, since any satellite can be used for either sector. For example, communication satellites can carry either military or civilian traffic, and navigation satellites are used by both the military and civilian communities.” Indeed both during war and peace, satellites prove supremely useful as non-aggressive, non-invasive tools to monitor enemy troop movements, military manoeuvres, airbases and air strength. Space systems could be a powerful equalizer in the hands of a militarily inferior power. Such systems have the capacity to increase the accuracy of weapons and improve the control over force manoeuvres. It enables India to monitor all volatile regions, their defence developments, military build-ups, and the manoeuvres of their troops.

Indian investment in space technology forms part of its ambitions to become a major regional power. Recent developments in this regard have enabled India to penetrate a global rather than a regional market where it intends to counter the US, China, Russia and European satellites in space. India certainly intends to eclipse Pakistan, but it is in direct competition with China which has already stepped into space technology in a big way. The Chinese missile launch on 11 January 2007 was a warning sign for not only India but also rest of the world, and particularly the US. India is certainly going to take further measures to counter the growing Chinese ambitions in outer space as its economic fortunes are set to attain higher dividends. As the Indian Space Technology scientist / spokesperson Nair of ISRO stated, “the Chinese have declared their space plans and in that process it is not right for India to be lagging behind.” Indian officials have gone further by saying that while the anti-satellite weapon system is not new (the US and Russia have both shot down objects in space) it is a paradigm shift in India’s strategic security concerns. India is pursuing three US objectives in space: control, vulnerability and inevitability.

The Indian militarization of outer space will certainly raise questions and concerns for Pakistan. Through its planned Military Surveillance and Reconnaissance system India would be able to undermine Pakistan’s deterrence and could threaten Pakistan’s defences. Understandably, Pakistan has taken such developments seriously in its account by offering an agreement on keeping South Asia free of ABM system and a bilateral agreement on non-use of outer space for military purposes. However, India has not shown any positive response to the aforementioned proposals. The Indian pursuit of the arms race in outer space destabilises the strategic balance in the South Asian region, which will propel neighbouring states to boost and explore their own technological capacities. India proclaims its belief in a minimum nuclear deterrence but as Indian ambitions develop along the lines suggested above such a strategy is no longer credible.

The Chinese / Indian power play in space and with regard to weapons in orbit threatens to turn space into a new sphere of military rivalry and a race toward the application of advanced technologies. The US is the sole power with the authority to undertake the requisite efforts to ban the placement of weapons in space for military purposes and establish a new form of international co-operation in outer space either by regulating the behaviour of nation states or by introducing a new treaty. The US should also take the initiative in introducing the verification measures aimed at preventing the development, testing and deployment of outer space combat assets. The prevention of an arms race in outer space is necessary to save the world from an unspeakable disaster.

The writer is a PhD student at University of Leicester, UK
[email protected]



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