India Is Set To Become A Global Leader In Space Technology: Satheesh Reddy

“India is rapidly growing into a global power in designing, developing and manufacturing space capabilities and is set to become a global leader in space technology,” G Satheesh Reddy said during India Space Congress (ISC) in New Delhi.

Reddy is a scientific advisor to the defence minister.

He said, “With the opening of space tech to private players, participation by startups and private organisations has brought transformative changes.”

Speaking on space security, he said, “Secure communication is vital for national security and space becoming the fourth frontier of warfare, it is critical to have secure communication using quantum technology.”

At the session “Space: The Fourth Frontier of Warfare” panellists including Lt Gen MU Nair, SO-in-C, Air Vice Marshal DV Khot, Director General – Defence Space Agency, Lt Gen (Retd) Vinod G Khandare, Sr Advisor – Ministry of Defence, Lt Gen PJS Pannu (Retd), Distinguished Fellow – USI and Air Marshal Gurcharan Singh Bedi (Retd), discussed on how space is defining modern warfare and the necessity to have a strong presence in space.

According to Air Vice Marshal, DV Khot said, “Top-down push by the government as new policies are created for the development of space tech and warfare. While space is primarily a military domain, the civilian sector has made rapid strides in space in terms of objects ahead of the military sector and because of the opening up of the space sector to private entities, we can find new talents,” which will help India build a robust technology driven team. 

As there is a large dependency on space-based platforms for communication, surveillance systems should be there in space, Lt Gen MU Nair, spoke on the challenges faced by ground personnel in radio communication in mountain terrains. “A robust ecosystem on the ground has to be prepared,” Nair said. 

Lt Gen PJS Pannu (Retd) said, “We must dress up the space for warfare. Quantum technology will play a vital role in the days and that investment in quantum technology will have a lasting impact.”

At the India Space Congress, the ‘Space for Defence in India’ report by PwC & SIA-India was released. The report was on innovation and developing cutting-edge technologies in space for defence on the supply side across all three vectors of manufacturing upstream, operations in midstream and delivery of services downstream, ensuring adequate resilience.

The ‘Space for Defence in India’ report addresses the future in two segments, whilst ‘Space for Defence’ focuses on leveraging dual-use capabilities around intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), communication, navigation, electronic warfare, SSA etc and ‘Defence of Space’ looks at the space kinetic and non-kinetic warfare capabilities.

The report brings out focus areas for building our capabilities in both segments and the requirement of a whole national approach with the govt, academia, public and private sector collaborating, raising space consciousness and investing across the value chain of R&D, manufacturing, system integration, operations and delivery of services to be a space power.