Military use of space: US to train two IAF men

In a first for the Indo-US ties, the US Air Force Space Command will train two IAF officers in military use of space and give them a comprehensive inside view of the world’s most advanced military-space set-up across the US. The week-long training will be imparted in August. The government has decided to send a Group Captain and a Wing Commander for training at the prestigious National Security Space Institute (NSSI) in Colorado Springs, the Pentagon’s premier space training set-up under the USAF Space Command.

After being told by the government that a separate Aerospace Command would be too expensive, the IAF is looking at the possibility of mandating the role to one of its existing commands — probably to Thiruvananthapuram-based Southern Air Command because of its proximity to the civilian space establishment.