Defence Space agency to come up at Bengaluru

Soon after it successfully carried out an anti-satellite test, India is setting up its military space agency headquartered at Bengaluru with the ace fighter pilot Air Vice Marshal SP Dharkar as its likely head.

"As per discussions, the tri-services defence space agency under the Indian Air Force officer is going to be headquartered in Bengaluru and is expected to get operational by the next month," government sources told ANI.

The tri-services Space agency is likely to command all the space assets of the three services including the A-SAT capability, which can be used to destroy enemy space-based satellites and other assets.

However, the final decision has not yet been taken on the capabilities and assets to be given to this agency.

AVM Dharkar is an ace fighter pilot and is presently looking after the air defence operations of an important command along the borders.

Bengaluru seems to be an obvious choice as the location of the space agency as it is also the headquarters of ISRO, which manages all types of space programmes of the country.

Ace Special Forces operative and Sri Lanka war veteran Maj Gen AK Dhingra has been appointed as the first head of Country's first tri-services Special Operations Division comprising commandos from all three services.

The Armed Forces Special Operations Division has been set up by the government to undertake joint operations by three services and will have elements from the Army's Parachute Regiments SF, Marine Commandos (MARCOS) of the Navy and the Garud Commandos of the Indian Air Force.Rear Admiral Mohit Gupta has been appointed as the head of the Defence Cyber Agency set up in Delhi with people from all three services.