Kargil War: mother of GPS

Necessity as they say, is the mother of invention.

It is a popular staple in the Guardian (and elsewhere in the lefty press) that India cant afford to feed its children, yet boasts of a space (and other high budget) programs. It is tricky question that merits a multi-point response.

We are on-record being ambivalent about defense purchases (and the
fact that India is the largest arms purchaser in the world). India spends
way too much (to protect against Pakistan) and way too little (to
counter China).
When push comes to shove, even miniscule Maldives
manages to shove India away. The military seems to have its most useful public face while helping out in natural disasters. Why not then have a self-defense force plus nuclear weapons to help secure the borders?

far as the space program is concerned the utility is without question.
It is a profit making program and it gives us access to space in a way
even our friendly friends would not provide to us. The striving for self-sufficiency (a long time goal of people across the ideological spectrum) can be seen to be a fetish (and a
hang-over in response to our colonial past) but in this case it is fully warranted.

things Indian military sought was GPS data for the region. The
space-based navigation system maintained by the US government would have
an indigenous satellite navigation system was felt earlier, but the
Kargil experience made the nation realize its inevitability.

Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation took the nation closer

launched the first of the satellites in the group, IRNSS-1A, in July
last. “By mid-2015,” said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan, “we will have
all the seven in place.” The system will be functional by the beginning
of 2016. Basic navigational services wouldn’t have to wait that
long—they can take off with just four satellites in orbit, which will be
this year. “When we have four satellites by the end of this year, we
will have an operational system and then we can go and test its accuracy
to validate it,” said K Radhakrishnan.

Three of the seven
satellites will be in geostationary orbits and the other four in
inclined geosynchronous orbits. From ground, the three geostationary
satellites will appear at a fixed point in the sky. However, the four
geosynchronous satellites moving in inclined orbits in pairs will appear
to move in the figure of ‘8’ when ‘seen’ from ground. Apart from
navigation, the system will help in precise time keeping, disaster
management, fleet management and mapping.

The first is called Standard
Positioning Service (SPS) which is for civilian use.
This will have an
accuracy of 20m, while the second is called Restricted Services (RS),
which can detect movement of objects by less than 10m.

It will put India in the company of select nations which have their own
positioning systems. While the US operates the Global Positioning
System (GPS), Russia has its own GLONASS and European Union, Galileo.
China is also in the process of building Beidou Navigation Satellite
System (BDS).

 Link: http://www.defencenews.in/defence-news-internal.aspx?id=3vfvyJ2/5Ls=

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