Saturday, February 13, 2010

New Sat Will Boost India's Surveillance, EW Plans

By vivek raghuvanshi
Defense News ~ NEW DELHI, 12 Feb 2010 - India is developing an advanced military surveillance satellite capable of picking up a conversation between two telephones as well as taking high-resolution pictures.
The Communication-Centric Intelligence Satellite (CCI-Sat) will be launched into orbit in 2014, said a senior scientist at the state-owned Defence Electronics and Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, which is developing the $25 million satellite.
The CCI-Sat is part of a high-priority plan to develop electronic warfare (EW) systems for India's Army, Navy and Air Force, the scientist said.
Meanwhile, India is ready to put into orbit another homemade satellite, Cartosat-2B, in the next two months. That satellite also will be used for military purposes, Defence Electronics and Research Laboratory sources said.
Last year, India launched its made-in-India RISAT-2 military satellite, which is keeping a high-resolution eye on the country's borders and coastline in case of terrorist infiltrations.
Cartosat-2, like the U.S. satellite Ikonos, delivers 1-meter-resolution imagery, second only to the Quickbird, which offers an incredibly close 60-centimeter resolution - all from a distance of 800 kilometers to 900 kilometers above the Earth, said a scientist from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The ISRO and Defence Research and Development Organisation are collaborating on a dedicated naval satellite that will have a 1,000-nautical-mile footprint over the Indian Ocean. India also plans to launch that satellite this year.

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