China flexes space muscles
JATINDER SINGH
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It is time we had an aerospace command to protect our assets in space
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FIFTY YEARS ago, Maozedong expressed anguish that China could not even launch a potato into space. Now (January 11, 2007) it has succeeded in hitting an obsolete weather satellite Feng Yun IC more than 800 km above the earth with a ballistic missile fired from the ground. China's prolonged silence about the test has ruffled a number of potential adversaries that include America, Japan and Taiwan.
Our government seems to be unruffled notwithstanding articles in various papers from defence strategists. China has outlined a set of capabilities it refers to as "Assassins Mace" (Shashou Jiang) asymmetrical strategy against U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites.
China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory during 2005-06 in what experts see as a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft. Even the Pentagon's China report in 2006 mentioned Beijing's tests acknowledging its ability to blind U.S. satellites, thanks to a powerful ground based laser capable of firing a beam of light at an optical reconnaissance satellite to keep it from taking pictures as it passes overhead.
U.S. service officials are taking it seriously enough to test ground-based lasers against their own spacecraft to determine their efficacy and plan space architectures that resist such attacks. The problem, according to sources, is that satellites are large, have predictable orbits that are easy to track and have scant defences against lasers.
There are two basic strategies for working of anti-satellite weapons. The first is to build a satellite that will enter an orbit near its target and release a spray of particles to rip it apart. The second approach is to launch a small satellite with some thrusters that can, with some adjustments after launch, ram its target as it passes by.
Hunter satellite
Given the debris field from the collision, it's likely that this Chinese project used the latter strategy on January 11. They fired an IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) such as DF-21 carrying the light (maybe 50 kg) hunter satellite which needed little more than a digital camera like device for guidance. The hunter satellite was reasonably manoeuvrable to reach its target.
The problem is the debris field created by the collision. Debris can easily reach speeds of 7.5 km per second, about 30 times the speed of jumbo jet, and because it is in space, it does not slow down. A millimetre sized piece of debris can very seriously damage a satellite. The Chinese test probably created at least two million such particles. A good portion of the debris is expected to whiz around the earth for a decade or more and it will eventually hit another satellite, maybe an Indian one resulting in a slow chain reaction.
To India, the test is not just a reminder of the glaring gaps in its defences but also a wake-up call to start addressing them. Instead of accelerating its space launch and missile programme, India has allowed asymmetry to widen to a point where China has now laid bare India's battlefield vulnerability. Fighting a 21st century war with one's key space assets disabled will be worse than facing an adversary with one hand tied behind. Such assets are critical not just for communications but also for imagery, navigation, interception, missile guidance and delivery of precision munitions.
It is time for India to have an aerospace command because our assets in space will grow and these need to be protected. Any country on the fringe of space technology like India has to work towards an "Aerospace Command" as satellites will be the main source of utilisation for command and control during wars. The aerospace command will be the agency to coordinate measures to observe international rules, regulations and initiating international ban on weaponisation of space rather than spurring a space based arms race. The Indian Air Force is better prepared to set up an Aerospace Command with representation from other agencies dealing with space assets.
The statement by Defense Minister A.K. Antony on February 8 at the Aero India 2007 (coming well after the Chinese test of January 11) that the government would not act in haste in setting up the aerospace command smacks of a mindset born of defence indolence.
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