CDS Anil Chauhan flags growing space capabilities of India’s adversaries: ‘primary elements of warfare will depend on space’

“We must define what is military space and then work towards creating a space culture, military doctrines, war fighting concepts etc. So, creating capabilities on Earth’s orbital system and on the ground to enhance military capabilities is one thing and protecting these assets is entirely another. Identifying potential threats to military operation space is critical to national security. These threats may originate from state or non-state actors,” General Chauhan said.

According to Chauhan, vulnerabilities may also extend beyond the space-based and on-ground systems that support them. “The command and control infrastructure can be degraded and denied. We all know the capabilities of some of our adversaries which are growing by leaps and bounds today. They have created a special aerospace force. They have demonstrated in-orbit manoeuvres. We have also heard about dog fights in space. It is important we keep track of these as they form part of our risk mitigation strategy,” Chauhan said.

Gen Chauhan said mankind was on the cusp of an era where “space is emerging as a new domain of warfare, and it is going to dominate warfare”. “All the three primary elements of warfare (land, sea, air) will depend on space.”

Gen Chauhan underlined that space culture is about “new ideas on the use of space”, which will “leap forward” to the creation of new capabilities.

Detailing the aspects of the space culture, he said, “Physical capabilities grow from the ideas that you generate. So, the generation of ideas is very important. Space culture is doing seminal research on warfare. It is about the development of doctrines and strategies about space”.

Space culture is about the development of subjects like space laws or a framework for space diplomacy, the CDS added. He said that while the scope for developing the space culture is vast, there is very little literature on it currently. “I think there is an important need that Services also have their own space warfare schools in the near future,” he said.

Gen Chauhan asserted that as Indians, and as a culture that respects space through knowledge and research, it is important that “we need to reposition ourselves.”

The Indian DefSpace Symposium was hosted by Indian Space Associated (ISpA) at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.