What does China146;s space test mean? Top security meet Monday

The country8217;s highest decision-making body on security affairs, the Strategic Policy Group, is meeting on Monday...

The country8217;s highest decision-making body on security affairs, the Strategic Policy Group SPG, is meeting on Monday to discuss the ramifications of China8217;s anti-satellite weapon test last month and formulate an Indian response to this major military development in the neighbourhood.

That India has quietly noted the message of the Chinese test on January 11 is loud and clear. Talking to The Sunday Express, Air Chief Marshall S.P. Tyagi said: 8220;Space is the new frontier and will acquire a more and more important role in warfare without even weaponisation. Anything that possibly disturbs assets in space will have a direct bearing on the result of war. Therefore, the Chinese test is significant.8221;

Tyagi refused to elaborate on the test in which Beijing is said to have shot down an old weather satellite with a medium-range ballistic missile 535 miles above in space, the first such test in the past 20 years. China acknowledged the test on January 23 after United States and Japan sought explanation for this military measure.

While New Delhi has maintained silence on the Chinese move, the SPG, headed by Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi, will meet the three Service Chiefs, Home, Defence and External Affairs Secretaries, Director Intelligence Bureau and Secretary R038;AW on Monday to discuss Beijing8217;s move.

At this meeting, the intelligence agencies will give a detailed readout of the Chinese test and its impact on the region as well as the big picture with the US.

Preliminary assessment done by the government suggests that China tested the weapon to demonstrate its capability and technological prowess and give a message of its global reach to the world.

The fact is that Indian security establishment knew that China was working on an anti-satellite weapon for the past three years and was expecting to test it in 2007.

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Although India is totally opposed to militarisation of space, it is bothered that the Chinese weapon was tested by the second artillery battalion of the Peoples Liberation Army using terminal guidance.

New Delhi has noted Bejing8217;s approach of going for a 8220;hard kill8221; shooting down the satellite rather than 8220;soft kill8221; using laser to disable the satellite for a limited purpose.

However, rather than raise the China bogey all over, the Indian establishment is confident at its own technological prowess. After all, the DRDO used a souped up Prithvi to knock down another Prithvi ballistic missile in 8220;exo-atmospheric8221; conditions on November 27, 2006.

That the missile was shot beyond atmosphere using terminal guidance means that the second Prithvi was imitating an Inter-Continental Ballistic Range weapon. DRDO8217;s V.K. Saraswat has already announced an 8220;endo-atmospheric8221; interception test later this year.