Militarisation of space
Context:
The very nature of warfare is on the cusp of major transformation and what is being witnessed is the militarization of space and steady progress towards weaponization, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday while stating space is being used to enhance combat capabilities in land, sea, and cyber domains.
Points to Ponder:
- With the militarization of space and progress towards weaponization, India’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, declared that the nature of warfare is undergoing a profound transition.
- He stressed the importance of India developing dual-use platforms with cutting-edge technology, expanding its NAVIC constellation, providing flexible space-based ISR, and ensuring secure satellite-assisted communications.
- General Chauhan also emphasized the development of new kinetic weapons as well as the need for India to create its own offensive and defensive space capabilities.
- The Indian Space Association (ISpA) in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organization organized the Indian DefSpace Symposium.
- The industry has defined 75 issues for development under the ‘Mission Def-Space,’ including all needs upstream, mid-stream, and downstream.
- According to DRDO chief Samir V. Kamat, the agency has begun to increase its focus on the space domain, with a focus on space-based surveillance, space situational awareness, and the protection of India’s space-based assets.
- The mission-identified difficulties are now being implemented in batches.
Indian DefSpace Symposium
- The Symposium aims to provide a forum for all parties interested in enhancing India’s military space capacity and goals. It will bring together specialists from all domains to discuss the latest trends and problems in the field of defense, providing delegates from the defense, DRDO, and government sectors, as well as industry professionals, with an outstanding networking opportunity.
- It will concentrate on providing space domain awareness and satellite communications to improve military operations, as well as addressing issues such as securing funding for new space capabilities, expanding international partnerships, and developing a Defence Space Strategy under the National Space Strategy.
- The Symposium will cover a wide range of topics, including an overview of government spending on defense space around the world, institutional evolution and modernization of defense establishments from a Space perspective, procurement and exposure of demand from Defense Space to local industry, key technologies emerging to make a difference for Defense Space, and lessons and impacts of using Space power.
