Indian Army to get new eye in the sky

Indian Army to get new eye in the sky

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Space

Context: The Indian Army has received a great boost after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh gave his nod to the Acceptance of Necessity for the GSAT-7B satellite.

What are the GSAT 7 series satellites?

• GSAT 7 satellites are advanced satellites developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to meet the communication needs of the defence services.
• The GSAT 7 satellite was launched in August 2013 from an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou in French Guiana.
• It is a 2,650 kg satellite which has a footprint of nearly 2,000 nautical miles in the Indian Ocean region.
• GSAT 7 provides a gamut of services for military communication needs, which includes low bit voice rate to high bit rate data facilities, including multi-band communications.
• Named Rukmini, the satellite carries payloads in UHF, C-band and Ku-band, and helps the Navy to have a secure, real time communication link between its land establishments, surface ships, submarines and aircraft.

What is the role of the GSAT 7A satellite, which is already operational?

• The GSAT 7A, dubbed the “Indian Angry Bird” was launched in 2018 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, and has gone a long way in boosting the connectivity between the ground radar stations, airbases and the airborne early warning and control aircraft (AEW&C) of the IAF.
• It also helps in satellite controlled operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which gives a great deal of reliability to the operations as compared to ground controlled operations.
• This satellite has 10 channels in Ku band with switchable frequency for mobile users, one fixed Gregorian or parabolic antenna, and four steerable antennae.

What other kinds of military satellites does India have?

• An Electromagnetic Intelligence Gathering Satellite (EMISAT), developed by ISRO, was launched in April 2020 through a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C45).
  • It has an Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) package called Kautilya, which allows the interception of ground-based radar and also carries out electronic surveillance across India.
  • The ELINT package provides the capability in direction-finding of radar and fixing their locations. It is placed in a 748-km orbit, and is said to be based on the Israeli satellite system. This satellite circles the globe pole-to-pole, and is helpful in gathering information from radars of countries that have borders with India.
• India also has a RISAT 2BR1 synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite, which was launched in December 2019 from Sriharikota. It has the capability to operate in different modes including very high resolution imaging modes of 1×0.5 metre resolution and 0.5×0.3 m resolution with a swath of 5-10 km.

What will be the role of the GSAT 7B satellite?

• Till date, the Indian Army has been dependent on GSAT-7A and other satellites, but with this new state-of-the-art technology, the Army will have new eyes in the sky.
• The GSAT 7B will primarily fulfil the communication needs of the Army.
• GSAT 7B will also help the Army enhance its surveillance in border areas.
  • Experts note that continuous satellite coverage over India’s vast and complex topography will help the Indian Army in maintaining peace and also to carry out security operations, if needed.
• The use of such a satellite would also mean that the Army’s vast array of radio communication equipment could come under a single platform.
• Enhancing the operational reach: When the Army gets its own communication satellite, the UAVs will be able to fly as per their original specifications, since this satellite can provide secure, encrypted communication to them.