With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a
successful ant-satellite missile test as an “anti-China measure”, will this be
a prelude to a Gene Roddenberry style Sino-Indian War?
By: Ringo Bones
During his national address back in Wednesday, March 28,
2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country has successfully
shot down its own low-orbit satellite with a missile that now puts India in the
league of global “space powers”. Prime Minister Modi said India had achieved a “historic
feat” by shooting down its own low-orbit satellite with a ground-to-space
missile in three minutes. Would it be also a matter of time before a “genetically-engineered”
Khan Noonien Singh like figure would soon arise too in India? Historic feat
indeed because when the United States successfully tested the ASM-135
Anti-Satellite Missile back in September 13, 1985, it took over 20 years to
perform the same feat – i.e. The People’s Republic of China when they successfully
tested their own anti-satellite missile system back in January 11, 2007 and
Russia only recently succeeded in doing the same back in November 18, 2015.
The test comes two weeks before polling begins in general
elections and Prime Minister Modi is seeking a second term in power after a
landslide victory in 2014. The test was largely termed as an ant-China measure
according to Bharat Karnad, a security expert with the Indian think tank the Center
of Policy Research. And given that almost all of Pakistan’s latest military satellites
are launched with technical assistance from The People’s Republic of China, it
seems that India’s latest successful ant-satellite missile test could be
perceived as payback for the country’s defeat during the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Even though India already possess missiles capable of
downing satellites in low-Earth orbit since 2012, the recent success of Mission
Shakti – Shakti stands for power in Hindi – as India’s foremost anti-satellite
weapons system would defend the country’s interest in space. India’s latest
space capabilities seem inevitable because the country’s space program has
grown substantially over the past decade. In 2014, the nation managed to put a
satellite into orbit around the planet Mars and the Indian Space Organization
has announced that it will send a manned mission into space in the next three
years.
