Chief of defence staff Anil Chauhan asks industry to help boost defence space

NEW DELHI: All stakeholders in the defence space arena should work on bolstering India’s counter-space capabilities, chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan said on Wednesday, in remarks that come in the backdrop of China rapidly developing and deploying potent anti-satellite (A-Sat) weapons.
Indian armed forces will roughly spend over 25,000 crore in the next few years to meet its defence space requirements, ranging from building a constellation of surveillance satellites to secure communications networks.
“It is the right time for the private industry to utilise this opportunity. I think it is time to build a highly-capable atmanirbhar (self-sufficient) defence space ecosystem,” the CDS said, inaugurating the three-day ‘DefSat’ seminar and exhibition here.
The industry should partner the armed forces in augmenting ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) capabilities by developing multi-sensor satellites, launch-on-demand services, and a robust network of ground stations. There is also the need to develop indigenous positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services by strengthening the NAVIC constellation, he said.
Stakeholders in the defence-space ecosystem also need to focus on counter-space capabilities as a deterrent for safeguarding the country’s space assets, Gen Chauhan said.
Stressing the “vitality” of space for mankind as well as for the armed forces, the CDS said space can be used as a force-multiplier to enhance combat capabilities in the traditional domains of land, air, sea as well as newer ones like cyber-warfare.
China has been assiduously developing A-Sat weapons, ranging from “kinetic” ones like direct ascent missiles and co-orbital killers to “non-kinetic” high-powered lasers, electromagnetic pulse weapons, jammers and cyberweapons, as earlier reported by TOI.


Both Gen Chauhan and IAF chief IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari in recent months have been stressing the need for India to develop both defensive and offensive capabilities in the space domain. India, as yet, has just a small tri-service Defence Space Agency, which was created in 2019, instead of the full-fledged Aerospace Command the armed forces had earlier demanded.
During the seminar, Gen Chauhan listed out the major initiatives taken by the government to capitalise on space to strengthen the capabilities of the armed forces.
Referring to the around 75 space-related challenges as part of Mission DefSpace 2022 under the iDEX initiative, “Five contracts have been signed and additional four contracts are at various stages of documentation. In similar timelines, a feasibility study of 12 Make-I challenges is also being progressed.”
The government is encouraging all stakeholders, including start-ups, for the development of a dependable indigenous space ecosystem. “We probably had one start-up in 2014, which has grown to 204 start-ups in the space sector, with 54 additions in 2023 itself. In 2023, we as a nation invested $123 million in the sector bringing the total funding to $380 million,” he said.
The Indian space economy, which is currently estimated to be around $8.4 billion, is expected to grow to $44 billion by the year 2033. “The government initiatives like seed fund scheme, 0% GST regime, sharing of testing facilities, technology transfer have provided the rightful support to the private industry,” Gen Chauhan added.