The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the third phase of the space-based surveillance mission.
Its objective is to create better land and sea domains for civilian and military applications.
The project will be handled by the National Security Council Secretariat, which also houses the Defense Space Agency, under an integrated headquarters in the Ministry of Defence.
According to the report, the central government is currently silent on this approval. However, the proposal is believed to include launching 52 satellites in low earth orbit and geostationary orbit for surveillance.
This project costs Rs 26,968 crore. Under this, 21 satellites will be built and launched by ISRO. The responsibility of the remaining 31 satellites will be with private companies.
Space Based Surveillance (SBS) 1 was started in the year 2001 during the tenure of Vajpayee government. It involved the launch of 4 satellites (Cartosat 2A, Cartosat 2B, Eros B and RISAT 2) for monitoring.
SBS 2 included the launch of 6 satellites in 2013 (Cartosat 2C, Cartosat 2D, Cartosat 3A, Cartosat 3B, Microsat 1 and RISAT 2A).
Now under SBS 3, a target has been set to launch 52 satellites within the next decade. Hindustan Times has learned that all three services will have satellites for their land, sea or air-based missions.
How to detect enemy submarines
The central government has signed an MoU with France for joint manufacturing and launch of military satellites in January last.
Currently, India’s focus is on acquiring capabilities that can detect enemy submarines in the Indo-Pacific.
Also, be able to track the construction of infrastructure in the land and sea areas along the border. The SBS 3 mission will support the Indian acquisition of 31 Predator drones from US-based General Atomics.
It is being told that this platform has very powerful surveillance capabilities in addition to the weapon package.
India tested its anti-satellite capabilities through a test firing on March 29, 2019, when an Indian missile destroyed a surviving satellite in orbit.
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