There are antecedents – take the case of the Indian nuclear submarine programme, which was widely speculated to exist, yet no clear evidence to suggest so for decades. Indeed, the public would only know once the DRDO believes the technology matures. It is entirely possible India’s leading defence science and engineering agency is pursuing the clandestine development of a more ambitious programme that extend to lasers and microwave weapons directed at space targets. Generally, the DRDO does run two subset programmes – one that is visible and a second set that are not fully visible or deemed “black” or highly classified projects. It is entirely possible for reasons of secrecy the DRDO’s space weapons effort is a highly classified undertaking and therefore the agency and the government think it wise to maintain secrecy. As of today, as Reddy’s statement suggests, there is indeed nothing in the public domain to suggest that India has a very expansive space weapons programme that includes DEWs. These DEW systems can include co-orbital DEWs that strike in-orbit targets or space borne DEWs to strike ground or terrestrial targets and ground-based DEWs geared for strikes against space borne targets. The larger question is whether the DRDO has an active DEW programme for use against in-orbit spacecraft.
We have been working in this area for the past three to four years to develop 10-20 KW. In the country too, we are doing a lot of experiments. Satheesh Reddy who heads the Department of Defence’s Research and Development observed, “DEWs are extremely important today.
DEWs generally would cover all weapons systems including electronic jammers to lasers. They are unlikely to be effective against distant space targets and assets. The laser weapons strength under development currently would at best, following the satisfactory of completion testing benchmarks and operationalisation, be effective only against terrestrial targets over short distances. Here, the author is using terrestrial expansively to include ground, sea and air warfare or DEWs operable and effective within the earth’s atmosphere. Most of the DEWs under the DRDO’s development are confined largely to terrestrial warfare. Nevertheless, the programme as of now does not reveal much whether the DEWs would extend to the space domain. India’s DEW programme is rationalised because China too is pursuing the development and eventual deployment of DEWs, which per se is not an unreasonable assumption. However, what is left unsaid is whether the current DRDO DEW programme can cater and serve India’s space warfare needs. This announcement was important but unsurprising as it was evident from at least 2017 that DRDO had been working on DEWs. India’s premier defence research organisation, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said in early September that it was developing on Directed Energy Weapons (DEW).
0 kommentar(er)
