Indo Asian News Service,
New Delhi, India: Work has begun on establishing a space weapons command but this is a 'complex' process involving the three services and civilian stakeholders, Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Marshal S.P. Tyagi said Tuesday.
'We are working (the Aerospace Command) out, it will take us a while,' Tyagi told reporters on the sidelines of an international aerospace conference here.
'We have an idea of what the Aerospace Command should be. There are so many other users who need to be part of it. All three services are users. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is a user.
'It's a complex number of personnel who are going to exploit our assets in space,' Tyagi noted.
The Aerospace Command is distinct from the Aerospace Commission that Tyagi has also suggested be formed.
The commission will be the umbrella body for the aerospace industry and will lay down the roadmap to be followed by civilian and military players. The Aerospace Command is intended to make effective use of space-based assets for military needs.
According to Tyagi, 'it is all right if today you don't (immediately) have an Aerospace Command; other institutions are in place. We are actually looking way far ahead.
'Today, the assets in space are very limited, tomorrow they will be much more,' Tyagi maintained. 'We are progressing. What shape it will take I cannot say till it is decided.
'So, all the stakeholders will get together to decide how this Aerospace Command will function.'
The then IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal S.K. Sareen, had in the late 1990s first mooted the concept of an Aerospace Command to combine all space-based assets for surveillance and military operations.
Tyagi's predecessor S. Krishnaswamy had also advocated the need for such a formation.
'Any country on the fringe of space technology like India has to work towards such a command as advanced countries are already moving towards laser weapon platforms in space and killer satellites,' Krishnaswamy had said.
There have also been reports that the IAF is pushing for converting the Strategic Forces Command, which is responsible for India's nuclear arsenal, into the Aerospace Command.
Last October, the IAF announced its Thiruvananthapuram-based Southern Air Command would be converted into the Aerospace Command but this was quickly nixed.
