Modern day warfare has been witnessing an exponential use of space enabled capabilities to support conventional warfare. For the armed forces, space-based Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), Meteorology and Satellite Communication (SATCOM) are primary space applications. Besides the military, a substantial part of global economy and society are increasingly reliant on various space applications.
It is for this reason that globally a growing number of space-faring nations and private commercial companies are getting involved in developing counter-space capabilities to build robust military capabilities with an aim to enhance national security.
Space Warfare is becoming a reality, it has established itself as a domain of war fighting. There has been a marked development in the field of direct ascent weapons, co-orbital satellite capabilities built up by various nations are being revealed, investment in development of directed energy weapons (laser, particle, or microwave beam) has been increasing. Nations are also building radio frequency energy weapons to interfere or jam communication across various frequency bands and of course there always is a looming threat of cyber weapons in space that use software and network techniques.
Over a period, there has been a marked change in approach of space-faring nations as to how they view space security. Most fear dangers of attack through employment of space-based assets or terrestrial systems, both kinetic and non-kinetic attacks. Space-faring nations are thus taking appropriate steps towards developing space defence strategy and building deterrence and measures to mitigate counter space capabilities of adversaries.
We have recent examples of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas war, wherein space has emerged to be viewed as a critical enabler. During these ongoing wars, we have witnessed both sides attacking SATCOM capabilities to degrade command and control, and effort to interfere with GPS to reduce its effectiveness in the region.
Chinese space threat is for real
Closer home, China has been zooming ahead in the field of space and development of new technologies, thereby tending to pose a threat even to the hegemony of the US. China has close to 200 military satellites providing it the ISR, Command, Control, Communication, Electronic Intelligence (ELINT), satellites for surveillance in oceanic region as well as precision missile deployment and tracking capabilities.
China has a well documented strategy of including space as part of its multi-domain operations, forming an important component of its strategic initiative in a conflict, whether in Western Theatre Command (WTC) or South China Sea (SCS) or the China-India border areas. These concepts are confirmed to be operationalised and regularly practiced in various Chinese military’s annual exercises.
In the kinetic domain, China demonstrated a successful ASAT in 2007, a high debris creating event that caused great concern among space-faring nations. China has a robust command and control structure. Its space specific needs are being addressed jointly by the state infrastructure and private space companies. The complete set of counter-space capabilities have been synergised by bringing it under the umbrella of Strategic Support Force under the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA SSF). Raised on 31 December 2015, the PLA SSF now controls the space, information and networking resources and activities for enhancing their military response. In October last year, media reports indicated that China has also established a separate near-space Command.
China’s space threats include kinetic and non-kinetic weapons on Earth and in space. It has demonstrated DA-ASAT, ground-based lasers and RF jammers, and an on-orbit robotic arm. It is known to have advanced cyber attacks and fractional orbital bombardment capability (FOBS), demonstrated in July 2021. China had earlier demonstrated its ability to take control of a satellite and pull it out of orbit into the graveyard orbit. Recently, the US has claimed that launch of Cosmos 2576 on 16 May this year by Russia, is actually a ‘weapon’ capable of attacking other satellites in space and this amounts to launching a space weapon. There are also reports that Russia is developing an ASAT nuclear weapon.
It is also pertinent to note that.
Indian space sector well poised
The space sector was opened-up for private sector participation by the Government of India in 2020 by a set of enabling-cum-regulatory framework. Roles and responsibilities of various organisations has been clearly delineated. ISRO has been assigned the role of technology development and inter planetary exploration. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Center (IN-SPACe), established in June 2020, has been created as an independent nodal agency under Department of Space (DoS) to act as a single-window, independent nodal agency, for promoting, enabling, authorising, and supervising various space activities of NGEs, including satellite and launch vehicle development, providing space-based services and sharing ISRO’s space-based infrastructure.
The NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), established in 2019, is a wholly owned Government of India company, under the administrative control of DoS, as the commercial arm of ISRO with the primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take-up high technology space related activities and is also responsible for promotion and commercial exploitation of the products and services emanating from the Indian space programme. The role and scope of NSIL has been enhanced to include owning satellites for earth observation and communication, and providing satellite services, building satellites, launch vehicles and providing launch services.
Further, Indian Space Policy was released in March 2023, through which the government seeks to pursue a holistic approach by encouraging and promoting greater private sector participation in the entire value chain of the Space economy, including in the creation of space and ground-based assets. As on date there are more than 200 registered private companies having received close to US$ 250 million funding, 68 MoUs signed and 48 authorisations issued in the past four years. Additionally, 75 Technology Transfer Agreements (TTAs) have been signed between the ISRO and private space companies to share ISRO’s developed technologies.
In the same stride, in order to help transform the space dreams and passion of Indian private sector’s space companies into reality, the Indian PM Narendra Modi in October 2022 launched Mission DefenceSpace, the iDEX driven challenges with indigenous solutions. These challenges were proposed by the Defence Space Agency (DSA) and all three-armed forces and included the development of a Launch System, Satellite System, Communication & Payload System, Ground System, and Software Systems. These have created a motivational atmosphere of innovation for the Indian space sector. Indian armed forces today, are buoyed by the progress under these challenges and this has raised their hopes and ambitions.
Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Anil Chauhan announced at the DefSat Conference 2023 that the Indian armed forces have earmarked funds of INR 25,000 crore to meet defence space requirements. Further, in the military domain, a tri-services DSA was established in 2019 for the integration of military space assets.
India’s futuristic challenges and way ahead
The question arises as to whether the existing structure is sufficient to meet the futuristic challenges in the space domain and how this needs to be efficiently addressed.
India needs to accelerate its counter-space programme. Of late, CDS General Anil Chauhan and the IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari have called for building offensive and defensive counter-space capabilities to safeguard assets, while stressing that the race to weaponise space is already on, and that the next war would be fought across the land, sea, air, cyber and space.
Price Waterhouse Coopers too, in an October 2022 report has highlighted the fact that due to the changing nature of space use and a concerted move towards non-kinetic warfare by various nations, there is a need for India to increase focus on the military applications of space technologies.
The emergent need is apparent. China’s space programme is miles ahead of the Indian programme. There is an urgent need for India to fill this capability gap. It is time to move from the conceptual to the physical implementation stage. For this, first and foremost, we need to prioritise various facets of our outer space capability build up plans, emphasis earmarked for development of SATCOM or PNT under IRNSS (NavIC) or ISR under Space Based Surveillance system phase 3 (SBS-3) programme or Space Situational Awareness (SSA) or space-based SIGINT. After all it is all about finances.
The emergence of asymmetric and hybrid warfare concepts in an ever evolving national security paradigm, require India to dovetail our Space and Information Warfare capabilities into our CONOPS to ensure operational success. An efficient exploitation of space capabilities would provide guidance in Peace, War and No-War-No-Peace situations and ensure continued operational success in the coming decades.
India is poised to play a defining role in responsibly shaping the future of the regional and global geopolitics in this decade and beyond. India thus needs to enhance its geopolitical stature and influence in regional and global security matters. In this regard, India needs to make urgent progress to address existing vulnerabilities, in whichever sector they maybe, including the emerging and innovative space sector.
Recommendations
As of today, most nations have a well-established Space Commands, viz. the US Space Command was re-established in August 2019; Japan in 2020 has established a Space Domain Mission Unit – a combined space force and an operational command; Australia established its Defence Space Command in 2022. Russian Space Command was established in 2011, Chinese space forces operate under the PLA SSF since 31 December 2015, and French Space Command, since 2019 operates under the French Air and Space Force.
Similarly, there is a case in point to revise the 2017 Joint Space Doctrine. This would go a long way in clearly delineating the way ahead for the military related space activities and laying the foundation for a futuristic Indian Space Command.
At the same time, the Government of India need to unambiguously provide a policy continuum by apportioning responsibility of development of defence space capabilities for the armed forces to a single service as a lead, similar approach could also be followed for Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA) for developing cyber capability, which could well be steered by the Indian Navy.
Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, during a speech on May 05, 2022, exhorted the IAF to become an aerospace force and be prepared to protect the country from future challenges. Similarly, the IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Choudhari, last year stated that the IAF Force was no longer the Air Force alone, but was the “Indian Air and Space Force,” much like its French counterpart.
There is a sound logic and merit in integrating air and space systems capabilities seamlessly, as well as synergising the transiting platforms, from air to near-space and further to outer-space, for the likes of high-altitude platform station (HAPS), hypersonic missiles, space planes etc.
Leveraging space power would include protection of our national space assets and exploitation of space to enable defence capabilities across the conflict spectrum. Resilience needs to be built into our space assets and space systems and counter-space capabilities are needed to protect our national interests in space and defend our conventional forces from space-enabled attacks.
–The writer is an IAF veteran and has been involved in air operations, intelligence and strategic matters. He has served as Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Off Ops) at Air HQ and Assistant Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Tech Int) at HQ – IDS, appointments related to offensive operations, UAV, space and ISR matters. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
