Space is now “the critical enabler of India’s defense apparatus,” the country’s most senior military commander has said

The Indian military has concluded its second-ever series of space wargames, aimed at figuring out how to use the latest space-based technology to bolster the readiness of the country’s armed forces.

Dubbed ‘Antariksha Abhyas 2024’, the drills did not take place in space, but at the Headquarters of the Integrated Defence Staff in New Delhi. The tabletop wargames ran from Monday to Wednesday.

”Space, once considered the final frontier, is now the critical enabler of India’s defense and security apparatus. With its rich legacy of space exploration and growing military capabilities, India is well positioned to navigate the challenges posed to space-based capabilities,” Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said in an address at the opening of the exercises on Monday.

The drills were attended by personnel from the Defence Space Agency, as well as army, navy, and air force officials, and scientists from India’s national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

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The Indian Defense Ministry said that the exercises demonstrated how “space-based assets and services” could be used by the army, navy, and air force, and helped identify vulnerabilities in the event that these services are interrupted by hostile actions.

In between exercises, military officials met with academics and experts who “provided valuable insights into the present and future landscape of military space capabilities and technologies,” the ministry said.

India set up the DSA in 2018, a year before the establishment of the US Space Force. However, New Delhi’s first foray into space warfare came a decade earlier, when the chief of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) – a military research agency roughly equivalent to the Pentagon’s DARPA – hinted that his staff had the technology to build anti-satellite missiles.

The Indian military finally tested such a weapon in 2019, shooting down a satellite in low-earth orbit. The operation was criticized by the Pentagon for the space debris it created, despite the US carrying out a similar test in 2008.

After the successful missile test, the DRDO revealed that it was working on additional space warfare technologies, including “directed-energy weapons, lasers, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and co-orbital weapons.”