Sky wars: How the stars conspired to deceive prying satellites

New Delhi, May 14: International aviation notices were issued, major engineering movements undertaken, and the presence of important scienti...

New Delhi, May 14: International aviation notices were issued, major engineering movements undertaken, and the presence of important scientists not kept under wraps; but this was the strategic deception created by India on the eastern coast so as to keep the prying eyes away from Pokhran last Monday. With the planetary configuration on May 11 exactly as it was on May 18, 1974 when India tested its first atomic device, it was the national penchant for studying the skies that finally proved to be the nemesis for the prying satellites.

India8217;s expertise in remote-sensing technologies through its IRS series satellites paid dividends when it came to preparing the testing site in the Alpha Range near Pokhran. Having placed its satellites in space, 8220;there is considerable information with us regarding which satellite is where and the timing of its pass,8221; said a defence scientist here.

While keeping track of the two US satellites that are generally responsible for surveillance over India 8212; the KH-11 andLacrosse 8212; the Army Engineers, scientists from the Atomic Energy Commission AEC and the Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO calibrated their movements with those of the satellites. 8220;It was classical cover-and-move tactics8221;, said a Ministry of Defence MoD official. The strategic deception, however, was being enacted simultaneously, thousands of miles away at the missile testing range near Chandipur in Orissa. In the build-up to the 37th test of the Trishul surface-to-air missile, DRDO moved more equipment than was required for the firing. It is believed that the apparatus put up at Chandipur resembled that of the Agni intermediate range ballistic missile IRBM.

While the Chinese signals surveillance facility at Coco Islands was activated in anticipation of an Agni launch, it was the same build-up that led the US satellites to focus their cameras on Chandipur rather than at Pokhran. It is likely, believe specialists here, that continued monitoring of the images which came of theactivities at the Chandipur missile testing range led to a complacency in the US National Security Agency, which is responsible for deciphering satellite surveillance images. 8220;They were probably seeing the images over days and ultimately came to the conclusion that not much was happening at Chandipur, and by the time the cameras were switched back to cover north-western India, it was too late for them,8221; said a military satellite imaging specialist.

When one of the satellites did make its pass over India, Washington was asleep and so the images were of little use to the experts there. And when the images were actually scanned, it was already too late for Washington to do anything. The three devices and the triggering mechanism were in place; cables ready to grasp every microcosm of data likely to be generated. Astrology, said many here at the MoD, is one the passions of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the head of DRDO. 8220;Using our knowledge of the space environment, and a basic common sense, we have been able to beatthe best technology money can buy,8221; said a senior MoD official.