DefSat 2023: The Roadmap ahead

DefSat India 2023, a three-day event and expo on international defence and space took place in New Delhi. The conference had multiple panel discussions on topics ranging from RussiaUkraine war, and India's space capabilities, to the gaps and its use in the defence and military area. Many affiliates from government departments of space and military forces, defence personalities, space tech start-ups, and academia participated in the event.

The conference began with an important remark, noting that space diplomacy is becoming more crucial as nations endeavour to create principles and rules that regulate the military usage of space-based resources.

The highlights include, “cooperation initiatives, such as commer- cial trade, combined research and development, and shared use of space-based resources, can aid in the establishment of mutual trust, advancement of transparency, and reduction of misunderstandings.”

The global race to outer space has surpassed preceding strides. Nations like India can ill afford to procrastinate.

The striking statement remains, “One who controls space, controls space battles and 21st century.”

Ambassador Bhaskar Balakrishnan, Fellow for Science Diplomacy at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, New Delhi emphasized on the ongoing war that has exposed geopolitical tensions, and a lack of legal clarity on space, which ultimately contribute to the militarization of space.

“International cooperation is certainly hindered by the UkraineRussia conflict and the US-China tensions. There is a trend towards militarising space through dual-purpose satellites and the development of ASAT technology which the US has issued a declaration to suspend.

There is a lack of legal clarity regarding the use of commercial entities. If a commercial entity works in space, under what law does it come? Does it come under the home country’s law or the regime of the country under which it is operating? Such legal loopholes must be cleared up as they can lead to misunderstandings,” he said.

India’s Space Capability

Dr P.K Jain, Director- Program Management and Authorisation, IN-SPACe mentioned, “Space diplomacy provides access to global technology and global funds. In the current scenario, ISRO has been doing all the heavy lifting and handling all the space activities, where the space industry is like a vendor to ISRO.”

He addressed that it is time to take the work done by ISRO to the next level, for that participation of industry is very necessary whose enabling mechanism is already in place.

ISRO has more than 275 MoUs signed with 60 plus countries and have several joint satellite projects,

NISAR being a good example which is an earth observing mission between NASA and ISRO.

The global race to outer space has surpassed preceding strides. Nations like India cannot afford to procrastinate or regulate this domain to lower significance.

Addressing Existing Gaps

Dr. S Somanath, Secretary, Department of Space, and ISRO's Chairman said, “There is an urgent need to create demand, expansion of space launch capabilities, application capabilities and usability widely across the space sector. We need to connect artificial intelligence and drone technologies along with quantum communication capabilities with space to get the maximum benefit out of space sector.”

Full potential of space for the strategic purposes was not recognised earlier, as it was primarily utilised for public good and civilian use. India has the capability to launch in a reasonable manner, but further scaling up and building up demand is essential as space investment is capital-intensive.

The conference focussed on the intersection of strategy and industrialisation for space applications in national security.

Future Roadmaps

The DefSat initiative was organised to establish a common roadmap for the space and defence sectors. This effort will be achieved through cyclic debates that will be held every six months, to ensure continuous progress towards the goal.

“Private space players can very quickly step-in and provide solutions with scales that governments cannot. The future wars and peaceful economic growth are both reliant of space capabilities. India must define its space philosophy, doctrine and strategy to enable building a tight roadmap for the industry,” said Lt. Gen. PJS Pannu, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd), Former Deputy Chief, Indian Integrated Defense Staff (Operations), Chair of the Aerospace and Defence Committee, SIA-India.

Dr. G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri pointed out that with the rate at which technology developments are taking place, “we will soon have to be very clear what we need to develop within the country and what needs to be sourced from outside until we develop the technologically sound resources.

That can be done by developing new institutes, collaborative efforts within existing institutes to develop future ready skilled and capable resources.”

“For R&D ecosystem, technological capabilities have to be enhanced at institutional level. There is a need for creation of action plans, Research and development platforms as well as observation capabilities for the entire nation,” added Dr. Somanath.

“India is ushering into the commercial space and satellite communication era where the opportunities are humongous, enhancing its global digital footprint. The emergence of the commercial space sector and startups throw up some attractive possibilities for the country’s Defence requirements,” stated Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri, President, SIA-India.