Twin Cities Pioneer Press – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with just two weeks to go before polling begins for elections in the world’s largest democracy, has declared his country a “space superpower.” The grounds for that declaration were a technical accomplishment: an indigenously developed Indian ground-launched missile successfully shot down one of the country’s own satellites in low orbit, some 187 miles above the Earth’s surface. India’s accomplishment is significant, but it’s not without risks — both in the region and for the burgeoning militarization of space.
Anti-satellite weaponry of the sort demonstrated by India isn’t a category all its own. Rather, these weapons fall into a broader set of “hit-to-kill” systems, so called for their fundamental task of using the sheer kinetic force of one object to destroy another. In the American missile defense context, this task is often compared to hitting one bullet with another. Indeed, just this spring, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency hit a milestone of its own when it launched multiple interceptors to destroy one incoming intercontinental-range ballistic missile target.
What India demonstrated is no simple feat. As Modi underscored, New Delhi did gain entrance into a fairly exclusive club of countries that have shown themselves capable of destroying satellites in low Earth orbit. What he obscured, however, is what the accomplishment says about India’s burgeoning missile defense capabilities and how they might be perceived by its neighbors.
