NEW DELHI, Apr 11: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan on Tuesday called for greater collaboration to augment space-based defence capabilities in India.
The CDS made the statement after inaugurating the ‘Indian DefSpace Symposium 2023’, being organised by Indian Space Association (ISpA).
In his address, Gen Chauhan said, “Today’s symposium will assist all of us to center our national security, while identifying possible solutions to address future challenges. The aim for all of us should be towards developing dual-use platforms with special focus towards incorporating cutting-edge technology and we must expand our NAVIC constellation, provide agile space-based ISR and ensure secure satellite assisted communications.”
“We also need to explore the field of miniaturisation of satellites and reusable launch platforms to mitigate cost, challenges and accelerate the pace of augmenting our space-based capabilities. The populating of space domain and the emergence of dynamic threat environment to our space assets also demands that we enhance our space situational awareness capability. There’s also a requirement to safeguard our assets with counter space capabilities. We must build resilience and redundancy in a space-based infrastructure,” a release quoted the CDS as saying.
Samir V Kamat, Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said, “We at DRDO have started increasing our focus on the very critical space domain with focus on space-based surveillance, space situational awareness, protecting our space-based assets.”
”We are now looking at working very closely with industry as well as academia right from the development stage and have started DRDO industry-academia centers of excellence in about 15 institutions mostly within the country. We request academia, startups, MSMEs and larger companies to work with us closely so we can help our country achieve these capabilities much faster than what we have been able to do for all other systems,” Kamat said.
The Indian Space Symposium is the first of its kind event focused on creating a platform for all stakeholders who have a keen interest in boosting India’s military space capability and plans. The platform will bring together experts from multiple domains to discuss the latest trends and challenges in the field of defence, making it an excellent networking opportunity for attendees from the defence, DRDO, and government sectors, as well as industry professionals, a statement said.
It will focus on delivering space domain awareness and satellite communications to enhance military operations, and address issues related to securing funding for new space capabilities, expanding international partnerships, and developing a Defence Space Strategy in line with the National Space Strategy, the release said. (UNI)
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