Mission Shakti: India’s anti-satellite test sends a stark message to China

Foreign ministry said that India wasn’t engaging in an arms race, but asserted that “with this test, India joins an exclusive group of space-faring nations consisting of USA, Russia and China

One month after an ageing Indian Air Force jet was shot down in a dogfight with neighboring Pakistan, New Delhi has demneighbouring new weapons capability aimed at another, more powerful geopolitical rival: China.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a national address to announce India had “established itself as a space power” by sending an indigenously designed ballistic-missile interceptor up 300 kilometers (190 miles) to destroy a satellite orbiting the Earth. The move — with political overtones just weeks ahead of a national election — sends a stark message to India’s nuclear-armed rivals, China and Pakistan, and changes Asia’s strategic calculus by proving India has the ability to knock out enemy satellites.

The development suggests India, which has long struggled with a lethargic military-procurement process and outdated defense technology, is getting closer to sitting alongside China, Russia and the U.S. as countries with the ability to disrupt enemy communications networks. The move comes weeks after India sparred with arch-foe Pakistan in the skies over Kashmir, a disputed border region where China also has territorial claims.

“Essentially, India is saying that we are a strong and capable military power — it’s not specific to any one country, but it is a message to all of India’s adversaries,” said Ajey Lele, a retired Indian Air Force group captain who’s now a senior fellow at the Ministry of Defence-funded Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. “If somebody wants to do something to our satellites, we have the capability to do this to your satellites…

Click Here: Mission Shakti

India successfully tests ASAT missile, joins space superpower club

The tracking and interception capabilities that went into Mission Shakti have been available with the DRDO for over a decade

Current Affairs: On Wednesday morning, 300 kilometers over the Odisha coast, a ballistic rocket guard interceptor created by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) struck a satellite in a low earth circle, crushing it into pieces. Head administrator Narendra Modi declared the accomplishment of the test, codenamed Mission Shakti, on TV and Twitter. Proclaiming that “there can’t be a more prominent snapshot of pride for any Indian”, he stated: “In the voyage of each country, there are minutes that bring most extreme pride and historically affect ages to come. One such minute is today. India has effectively tried the counter satellite (ASAT) rocket.”

The Prime Minister said India had enrolled its name among the space superpowers. “Up until this point, just three nations were in this club – America, Russia and China. Presently India has turned into the fourth nation to build up this capacity,” he said.

The following and capture attempt abilities that went into Mission Shakti have been accessible with the DRDO for over 10 years. It started building up these after China’s fruitful ASAT test in 2007. On March 18, 2008, at that point DRDO boss, Dr VK Saraswat (presently a NITI Aayog part), had informed the media in New Delhi that blocking an approaching rocket terminated from 2,000 kilometers away required a similar innovation required for shooting down a satellite. Asserting that the DRDO effectively had that capacity in 2008, Saraswat had stated: “We have worked, starting at now, ABM (ballistic missile destroying rocket) frameworks with interceptors to draw in 2,000 kilometer-class of targets.”