India in elite club

Govt, DRDO deserve praise for Mission Shakti

India has propelled itself into an elite club of nations which has successfully demonstrated its capabilities in anti-satellite technology, with the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) anti-satellite missile (ASAT) shooting down a low-orbital satellite on Wednesday. The DRDO deserves compliments for its display of technical expertise, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed as “Mission Shakti”, and the government must be applauded for its courage in giving the go-ahead for this test. Research on the closely-related anti-satellite and anti-missile projects has been going on since at least 2010. By 2012, DRDO had claimed five successful demonstrations of anti-missile technology by intercepting and blowing up missiles. Indeed, the Chief Scientific Adviser of the time, V K Saraswat, claimed India possessed “all the building-blocks of anti-satellite technology” in 2010 itself.

The fact that this anti-satellite technology is indigenously developed adds to India’s credentials, given that for many decades India was kept away from acquiring key technologies, forcing the country to develop its own space and nuclear capabilities. The acquisition of this technology is also expected to have spin-offs that India can exploit for commercial use, both domestic and globally. The capability achieved through the test provides credible deterrence against threats to the country’s space-based assets from long-range missiles. 

However, it remains to be seen whether India faces international criticism for actually doing something that it has long possessed the capacity to do. India is among the signatories that have ratified The Outer Space Treaty, which aims to keep space free of weapon. Although it is not in technical violation of that treaty, which only bans weapons of mass destruction from space, this demonstration will be seen as going against the spirit of an agreement to keep space demilitarised. In that context, it is reassuring that the prime minister has been quick to point out that the intent of the Mission is to defend India’s space assets and not to start any arms race in space.

In practical terms, however, the test demonstrates little that was not already known about India’s capacities in this regard. India obviously has the ability to track satellites, given its own programme. It also has a tested array of ballistic missiles and the ability to deploy weapons in space. A section of the DRDO scientists had said in the past that they would prefer to demonstrate a grasp of anti-satellite technology by a “fly-by” test where a satellite is tracked, and an anti-satellite missile is aimed to pass very close to the target without hitting it. This is because blowing up a satellite creates debris which puts other satellites and space infrastructure at risk. When China blew up a defunct satellite in 2007, to demonstrate anti-sat technology, the debris damaged a functional Russian satellite, and came close to hitting the International Space Station. However, these concerns may be unfounded as the Indian defence ministry has been quick to clarify that the test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris; and whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back on to the earth within weeks. In a future war, the ability to destroy enemy satellites, thus degrading surveillance and communication systems, and also to interdict incoming missiles, may be important.