India To Develop Its Space Warfare Weapons Systems

On June 11, the Indian government announced that it would work on new warfare weapon systems to enhance its armed forces’ capabilities for combat in outer space.

Business Standard reported that the plans to set in motion a weapons research agency known as the Defence Space Research Agency. Though this initiative, the country hopes to further establish its militarized interests in space.

The engineers and scientists working for the project would report the progress to the Defense Space Agency which is a separate military agency established for future space wars.

Insiders said:

The Defence Space Research Agency is being built in Bengaluru.

The announcement comes three months following the news of the Indian government firing a missile to take down a satellite in orbit. This show of force was later criticized publicly by NASA for creating more dangerous space debris which could come into collision with other spacecraft or satellites.

During a Town Hall meeting, Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator, said that at the moment, there are 24 pieces of debris floating 250 miles above the ISS (International Space Station), posing as an “unacceptable” threat to all astronauts on board.

Bridenstine then stated that NASA is tracking around 60 pieces of debris from the explosion of India’s satellite. Each of them is about six inches or even bigger. However, other pieces which are too small to track could jeopardize the ISS as well.

Business Standard theorizes that the missile test is to send a warning to hostile countries which might consider attacking India’s satellites. The division of new space weaponry research is only in its preparation stage, so it is not clear how aggressive the country wants its space program to become in the future.