IndSpaceEx: Tri-Services To Hold First Of Its Kind Two-Day Simulated Space Warfare Exercise From Tomorrow

After the Anti-Satellite (A-SAT) test in March, India will now hold a first-of-its-kind two-day space warfare exercise beginning tomorrow, The New Indian Express has reported.

The simulated exercise, named ‘IndSpaceEx’ will be conducted at the Integrated Defence Headquarters (IDH) in New Delhi with experts from the three services - Army, Air Force and Navy along with DRDO and academia among others coming together for it.

The exercise has been planned with an eye on China, which as per experts in the field, is developing an entire array of anti-satellite weapons including non-kinetic ones like lasers and electro-magnetic pulse weapons.

“There is the need to explore effective tactical, operational and strategic exploitation of the final frontier of warfare. We cannot keep twiddling our thumbs while China zooms ahead. We cannot match China but must have capabilities to protect our space assets,” an official said.

With the defence arena slowly widening to include cyber and space areas, the significance of military assets in space has increased over the last decades. Recognising this, the Cabinet Committee for Security, had earlier cleared the formation of Defence Space Research to aid the Defence Space Agency under the tri-services.

The Defence Space Agency, which will command the A-SAT capabilities among others, has been formed to ensure defence of Indian assets in space along with offensive capabilities. The agency is to be setup in Benguluru under the tri-services command.