India will set up an aerospace defence command to shield itself against possible attacks from space, officials said on Sunday. One of its aims will be to track space debris that may endanger the country鈥檚 satellites.
The announcement came three days after Russia backed India鈥檚 call for a 鈥渨eapons-free outer space鈥� in response to a Chinese satellite-destroying weapons test (see China dismisses 鈥榮pace arms race鈥� fears).
Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Shashi Tyagi said it was in the process of establishing an aerospace defence command 鈥渢o exploit outer space鈥�, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.
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鈥淎s the reach of our air force is expanding, it has become extremely important that we exploit space, and for it you need space assets,鈥� Tyagi told reporters in the western city of Gandhinagar.
鈥淲e are an aerospace power having trans-oceanic reach and we have started training a core group of people for the aerospace command,鈥� the air chief marshall said without specifying a time-frame for the ambitious project.
Tyagi said IAF would seek civilian help for the project. 鈥淲e will take help of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) for the aerospace command but it will have distinct features as it is a military command,鈥� he said.
Space debris
Military sources said the IAF would try and replicate the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) set up by the US and Canada. NORAD detects and tracks threatening man-made objects in outer space.
The Indian command鈥檚 charter will also include ensuring air sovereignty and air defence, they said. 鈥淭he aerospace command will be an integration of various components of the air force, Indian satellites, radars, communications systems, fighter aircraft and helicopters,鈥� PTI quoted an unnamed air force official as saying.
The IAF, the world鈥檚 fourth largest, has developed air-launched cruise missile systems and plays a key role in the deployment of India鈥檚 nuclear arms arsenal. Now, it is planning to increase its fleet of 800 combat jets and some 400 support aircraft with 126 new war jets, at a cost of some $7 billion.
China, which fought a bitter border war with India in 1962, destroyed an orbiting satellite this month using a ballistic missile, making it the third country 鈥� after Russia and the US 鈥� with such capabilities.
Meanwhile, India has been developing ever more ambitious space projects and last week one of its own orbiting capsules successfully splashed down into the Indian Ocean to help develop technologies for future human and robotic missions (see India launches capsule recovery experiment).
