India plans use of Israeli spy sats for coastal surveillance

[LETHALFORCE]

http://news.oneindia.in/2011/01/16/...spy-sats-for-coastalsurveillance-aid0126.html


Buzz up!
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) Aiming to enhance surveillancecapabilities along the coastline, India is planning to useIsraeli spy satellites to keep an eye over its maritimeboundary with Pakistan.


Under the plan, New Delhi is looking to use the spysatellite coverage over the maritime region off the coast ofGujarat near Kutch, the region which was used by theterrorists involved in the 26/11 terror attacks to enter Indiathrough the sea route, sources told PTI here.

A discussion in this regard between the two sides washeld recently during the visit of a high-level Indian Defencedelegation to Israel, they added.

Post 2008 Mumbai attacks, cooperation between Indiaand Israel in anti-terrorism efforts has been on the rise andNew Delhi is taking Tel Aviv''s help in securing its maritimeand land borders with Pakistan.

Once in place, the planned system would help thesea-guarding agencies such as the Navy and the Coast Guard tokeep an eye over a large area and keep a check on the vesselsmoving through the region and also verify their identity, theysaid.

The satellites would also be used to forewarn theauthorities in case of any suspicious movement of ships orsmaller vessels moving from Pakistan towards India.

With the satellites covering all the suspicious routeswhich the terrorists can possibly use in future, it will helpthe Navy and the Coast Guard to locate, check, and ifnecessary, destroy such vessels.

The Navy is going to commission its squadron of itsIsraeli Searcher and Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)tomorrow at Porbandar in Gujarat for enhancing itscapabilities to tighten the vigil over the maritime trafficthere.

India has a over 7,500-km long coastline, which wasnot well-guarded till recently and after the Mumbai attacks,several steps are being taken by the Centre to plug the gapsin coastal security.

With an increased threat perception, the Governmenthas sanctioned procurement of equipment including fast attackcraft, offshore patrol vessels and reconnaissance aircraft forthe Navy and the Coast Guard.

The Navy is also raising a new force called the SagarPrahari Bal (SPB) to protect Naval bases and the coastlineareas.

The SPB will be deployed to carry out shallow wateroperations in both day and night for seaward anti-terroristpatrols for security of naval assets, besides interception athigh speeds and perform search and rescue operations.

 

[JayATL]

has Israel become the de facto access to the western superior military technology for India? I'd like to hear how far back is this relationship been growing and what was the catalyst? when I lived in India we were very pro PLO. I like the new relationship... just curious how it happened to be..

 

[sandeepdg]

Great, now we have to depend on other countries for providing us with satellite intelligence. But, then its better than nothing, I suppose, till we have our spysat in the sky.

 

[Virendra]

I wonder what is missing after ISRO has done so much of work in space and we count ourselves as leaders there. Are we under utilising ?
Some defence driven programmes need to undertaken by ISRO with priority. It is time to leverage the hardwork and firm base in space sector. I believe it won't be so difficult after all.

Regards,
Virendra

 

[sandeepdg]

Wonder, why we are using this Israeli satellite when we already have the RISAT-2 up in the sky, which is again Israeli made.
Also, what happened to Cartosat and the TES that we launched in 2001, which is a precursor to the full fledged spy sat that ISRO plans to launch in 2014.

http://www.bharatchronicle.com/indias-spy-satellite-to-be-ready-by-2014-5036

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/apr/20/indias-spy-satellite-risat-placed-in-orbit.htm

 

[sayareakd]

well i must say good first major step, we need to take more steps, more eyes in space. If we can keep real time surveillance on sea and land, nothing is better then that. We need to have locally made satellite in space for this purpose, ofcourse no harm if we have israeli satellite after all we are the one who are and will launch the same.

 

[sandeepdg]

Saya, that's a good point that we will offer them launch facilities on our rockets for their satellites, but then again, remember the AESA export ban, the US can again mess things up, if the Pakistanis protest to them that the Israeli satellites are being used by us to spy on them. Though its rare that such a thing will happen, since the satellites are their own and not American, but there's a probability, I think. So, best we go for our own eye in sky.

 

[blade]

Excellent to see India more and more becoming dependent on different small countries especially in those fields where it should have been a pioneer in the region when the years of experience that we have is taken into account. OHHH errrrrr I am so sorry " i just forgot that india is a good boy & militarization of space is a bad job so we never took it seriously inspite of having one of the largest constellation remote sensing satellites in the world" Any way lots of congratulations to indian planning offices, now they have taken a massive step forward to catch up with pakistani capabilities. As far as china is concerned WE ARE BHAI BHAI ....common guys nehru told this long agoo in 62 dont u read history well? So now sleep tight.

 

[Tshering22]

^^ LOL! You bet that's the first thing that crossed my mind when I read this topic.

 

[Tshering22]

has Israel become the de facto access to the western superior military technology for India? I'd like to hear how far back is this relationship been growing and what was the catalyst? when I lived in India we were very pro PLO. I like the new relationship... just curious how it happened to be..

The catalyst was the unflinching support of Arab Islamic countries to Pakistan on J&K and their excessive conditions to support us for UNSC included:

- Quite nuke programme (after 1998)
- Forget Kashmir (in a way)
- Severe ties with Israel (which was at nascent stage)

So India went about pursuing Israel. Also post 1998 when NDA government came into power the ties were further boosted especially after Kargil when Israel gave us the UAVs and artillery shells.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

We have our own satellites but what is wrong with intelligence sharing?? We have a pact with Israel so this is an important step it guarantees we will always have satellite intelligence, which is even more important after the chinese anti-satellite tests. This is not diminishing our capability but augmenting it.

 

[Ray]

Satellites cannot oversee the complete landmass.

To do so, India would have to have many satellites.

It there is an Israeli satellite over the area of interest, there is no harm in using the same since the aims of both the countries are common in many areas.

 

[sandeepdg]

I am not against Israel offering us its satellite intel resources, it is always welcome. But the fact is that we need to hasten up the development of a network of spy sats of our if we want to self reliant in times of need. Also, the fact being that though our TES is exceptionally good, its still nowhere near to the satellite imaging capabilities of other powers which can give a resolution of cms.