RISAT- I : IS IT INDIAN RESPONSE TOWARDS MILITARISATION OF SPACE ?
Wg Cdr RK Singh*
26 Apr 2012 was a momentous day for the Indian Space community, wherein their dedicated efforts fructified into successful launch of Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-I). With this, India joined a select group of nations having such sophisticated technology at its command. This indigenously built RISAT – I with a life span of 5 years, will primarily be used for disaster prediction and agricultural forestry. This is in line with the declared Indian objective of social utility of space based assets. However, the high resolution pictures and microwave imaging from RISAT-I could also be used for defence purposes, as it can look through the clouds and fog. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while congratulating the scientists from ISRO for the successful launch off the PSLV-C 19 rocket that had put into orbit RISAT-I said “ I have no doubt that RISAT-I’s all weather, day and night imaging ability will significantly contribute to the nation’s remote sensing capabilities”.1 This is the beginning of a new generation of India’s radar imaging satellites.
Apart from the social and commercial utility of this satellite, the military utility is best highlighted by the satellite Director N Valarmati, who says “RISAT-I can take images in all weather conditions and during day and night. The satellite also has high storage device and several other unique features.” The military significance also increases from the fact that RISAT-I’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can acquire data in C-band and would orbit the earth 14 times a day.
The Military Leaning of Indian Space Programme
The successful launch of RISAT – I catapulted India into a select group of elite nations having a SAR in the sky. The unique feature of this satellite is that it will provide an all-weather capability to monitor a particular region of the earth. In military parlance, it could be said that India has now achieved the capability to carry out all weather 24X7 surveillance of any region of strategic / tactical importance. The eye in the sky can thus be deployed for tactical gains by monitoring an “Area of Interest” for troop movement, missile launch, intense activity towards military build–up, monitoring of hostile borders/inhospitable terrains, and other such activities.
With the launch of RISAT-I, India is now poised to be a nation with an undeclared military satellite. This could thus be considered a beginning of India’s effort towards “militarisation of space”. Slowly but steadily India is seeking parity with China in particular and other space faring nations in general towards utilisation of satellites for surveillance over any specific “Area of Interest” . This will enable Indian Armed Forces to carry out better monitoring and analysis of any dynamic threat to the land borders, its maritime boundary, its group of islands(both in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal) or the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Indian Ocean. However, this technological gain would be worthwhile only if there is an intent to shift to satellite based surveillance towards building up a new security architecture, thereby bringing a paradigm shift in the strategic planning for the defence of the country’s national interests. In this regard it is pertinent to note that the ISRO chairman Mr K Radhakrishnan, said after the successful launch of RISAT-I that “the Indian space agency is planning a couple of more satellite launches – communication and remote sensing satellites-this year.” 2 It is imperative that India consolidates its remote sensing capabilities in future and launches more satellites with military capabilities.
Militarisation to Weaponisation : The dilemma and the Options
With 11 remote sensing/earth observation satellites orbiting in the space, India is a world leader in the remote sensing data market. The 11 satellites are TES, Resourcesat-I and 2, Cartosat-I, 2,2A and 2B, IMS-I, Risat -2, Oceansat-2 and Megha-Tropiques. Apart from this, there are large number of communication and meteorological satellites in the orbit today, which will continue to grow with every passing year. The security of these valuable assets, specially in view of the Chinese ASAT (demonstrated on 11 Jan 2007), needs to be factored into the overall security architecture of the country and should become an integral part of India’s Space doctrine. It is necessary to develop suitable counter-measures to protect the space assets from the threat from Chinese ASAT in the near future. Only then, India can claim its rightful place in the list of space faring nations, which can launch, operate and protect its satellites. To achieve this, India needs to not only develop counter ASAT technologies as defensive option, but also to work on ASAT technology as a deterrent for the offensive action against. This will enable India to slowly move ahead from militarisation to weaponisation of space, and protect its space assets which are acting as the engines of economic development.
In line with the UN resolutions on weaponisation of space, India is committed to the concept of Weapon Free Space. It is a signatory to Outer Space Treaty of 1967, PAROS and other resolutions passed by UN on prohibition of weapons of mass destruction in space. However, recent test of ASAT by China has changed the world dynamics and US and Russia are furthering their efforts to weaponise the space at a frantic pace for strategic and tactical advantage over China. Thus with an ASAT capable adversary in the neighbourhood, India can’t be a mute spectator. Infact, having a large number of satellites in orbit for different purposes, which have a direct bearing on the economic development of the country, India has to take effective measures to safeguard its space based assets.
The Way Ahead
The world has seen development and deployment of nuclear weapons, a prolonged and cumbersome process of checking proliferation by bringing in treaties like NPT, MCRT, FMCT, and so on. However, these treaties were put into effect by the efforts of P-5, the nuclear haves, from the position of economic and military strength, under the aegis of the UN. This was perhaps the only way of making the world a safe place. Similarly, today the weaponisation of space is in its infancy, with only US, Russia and China having displayed the capabilities of developing space weapons. Thus it is incumbent on India to develop and achieve its ASAT and counter ASAT capabilities, to safeguard national interests.
This is essential to prevent a possible blanket ban on further weaponisation of space by the established space faring nation’s leading to a “space apartheid”. This point holds strength as there is a marked rise in satellite operating nations around the world both in satellite building and its launch by nations like Iran, Israel, North Korea, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and more who. As the competition increases, the number of satellites in orbit will rise exponentially, thereby leading to confrontation for appropriate slot in the orbit. There may be accidental or even deliberate collisions of satellites leading to confrontation between space faring nations. Thus, there will be a necessity for all major space faring nations to develop ASAT and counter ASAT capabilities. This will lead to a new “Space Race”, necessitating the space powers to formulate a “regime” under the aegis of the UN to check proliferation of ASAT and counter ASAT technologies and a policy perhaps to have a “weapon free space”.
In either case, it will be in India’s interest to strive for achieving ASAT and counter ASAT capabilities on fast track to achieve the following :-
- Protect its vast fleet of satellites, which are the engines for the economic growth in modern times.
- Create deterrence, for the adversaries with counter strike capabilities through ASAT weapons.
- Favourably negotiate any international regime for ban on ASAT.
- Facilitate adoption of a new regime “Weapon Free Space” under aegis of the UN from a position of strength.
References
1. IANS Apr 27 , 2012 by Venkatachari Jagannathan at http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Risat_1_catapults_India_into_a_select_group_of_nations_999.html
2. ibid
*Wg Cdr RK Singh is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies and Simulation, USI.
(Article uploaded on May 09, 2012).
Disclaimer : The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the organisation that he belongs to or of the USI.