All the people in the country are hailing PM Narendra Modi for the work he has done for the country and also for the newly launched Mission Shakti. In a special television announcement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India has become the fourth country after the US, the USSR and China to have used such a weapon, and have successfully destroyed a low earth orbit satellite in space using a missile which covered a distance of 300 km to engage the target. It was called ‘Mission Shakti’.
Although, the government claims that India has added another feather in the cap. However, this is not the a case a former ISRO Satellite Communication Engineer said that this won’t be effective at all. “Most of the countries’ satellites are in the higher orbit, and even with this India won’t be able to knock out those satellites,” he said to News 18. N Kalyan Raman, who has worked with ISRO for over two decades feels that it cannot be an “effective spy satellite”.
According to Raman this was needed at all, “Not only will you be spending a lot, the enemy can always hit you.” He also pointed out that there are various effective ways to spy on your enemy, and the anti-satellite weapon doesn’t quite help in it. “In a war like situation, if a country wants to spy on its enemies there are various ways to do it– for example, Google Earth. All you need is good resolution photos. Why do we even need this?” he asked.
Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at MIT, told the Wired that while China can knock out all of India’s satellites India cannot do the same to China. “So it’s kind of a weird balance for India if it’s interested in getting into the anti-satellite deterrence game,” he said.
