Noting that the race to weaponise space has already began and the day will not be far when the following struggle would unfold throughout all domains of land, sea, air, cyber and space, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari stated on Monday that there’s a want to develop each offensive and defensive space capabilities to safeguard the nation’s property.
“We need to capitalise on our initial successes in space and prepare ourselves for the future,” he stated, talking at a seminar by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
We are seeing the “democratisation of space” with elevated non-public sector involvement, ACM Chaudhari stated, noting that this has led to dramatically decreased prices of growing, launching and working spacecraft for purposes corresponding to reconnaissance and telecommunications.
With “on-demand launch” changing into the brand new regular and rising exploitation of it by non-public and army stakeholders, space has positively develop into the final word excessive floor, he stated. Increasingly, the normal domains of struggle preventing together with the rising ones like cyber and info are all manifesting themselves into what is named a hybrid warfare, the Air Chief added.
“Over the years, the Indian Air Force has proved its capability across the entire spectrum of conflict ranging from peace, no war-no peace, and conflict situations,” ACM Chaudhari stated, stating that the IAF is on the trail of transformation in order that they will battle and win tomorrow’s wars.
Upgrading the stock
“We are in the process of acquiring and operationalising cutting-edge systems in our inventory. At the same time, the task of upgrading the existing inventory of aircraft, weapons and other combat support systems continues unabated.”
Talking of futuristic applied sciences like Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) and hypersonic weapons, ACM Chaudhari stated DEWs, significantly lasers, present important benefits corresponding to precision engagement, low value per shot, logistical advantages and low detectability over conventional weapons.
“Our defence industries need to further the development of these weapons and also integrate them onto airborne platforms to get desired ranges and accuracy,” he acknowledged.
He referred to the position of personal corporations within the space area and gave examples of Indian corporations like Pixxel who’re concerned in improvement of nano-satellites for a constellation of remote-sensing and earth remark and Skyroot, which has developed particularly designed rockets for nano-satellite launch.
Global stakeholders like Starlink, although in early phases of improvement, have offered path-breaking deployment of offering high-speed web entry all over the world in under-served areas, the Air Chief stated, including that such know-how now has the potential of twin use.
He elaborated that its civilian impact in world communication and web entry was nonetheless evolving whereas its army impact within the ongoing battle in Ukraine is unclear.
“It is pertinent that we develop such technology in-house. With these developments we can now envision indigenous space technology capabilities and affordable access to space for a range of applications in the near future. However, we must be cognitive of the technology to be within the contours of national policy, security and objectives,” he added.
