New Delhi (Sputnik): In June this year, US President Donald Trump announced that his country was going to establish a Space Force to fight in space alongside the military. What ensued was a raging debate on a possible space war, with analysts pointing out the necessity for countries to chalk out their respective space warfare strategies.
Sputnik spoke to retired Group Captain Ajay Lele, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), to understand the discourse better. Lele heads IDSA's Centre on Strategic Technologies.
Sputnik: It is now being widely considered feasible to threaten a nation's security through the use of space. What has triggered the recent debate on this issue?
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Sputnik: For the last many decades, efforts were afoot to keep space out of the ambit of an arms race. Have those efforts eventually failed?
Ajay Lele: Not really, but any effort has a shelf life and developments in technologies are making old practices obsolete.
Ajay Lele: No, space warfare is technologically challenging and as such technologies in the space domain have possible dual-use implications.
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Sputnik: Paralyzing adversary networks is one area of concern in space warfare; how much risk does India have on this front especially from its neighbors? What should the country do to avoid such a situation?
Ajay Lele: For India, there could be a direct threat to its low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Such satellites could be destroyed by using a technology called KKV (kinetic kill vehicle) or by creating systems to malfunction by using cyber means or by using jamming technologies. As a first step, India needs to establish a space command.
The views and opinions expressed by retired Group Captain Ajay Lele are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.