A-SAT Distasteful & Of No Help: Ex-ISRO Official on Mission Shakti

“This is is just about optics. It’s a part of the aggressive posture,” said N Kalyan Raman.

(Photo: Video Screenshot)

A former ISRO official, in a conversation with News18, said that India’s Mission Shakti won’t be of much use in case of a threat, as most of the satellites of other countries operate in higher orbits.

“Most of the countries' satellites are in the higher orbit, and even with this India won't be able to knock out those satellites,” said N Kalyan Raman, who has worked with ISRO for over two decades.

“Not only will you be spending a lot, the enemy can always hit you,” he added.

He further told News18 that the anti-satellite weapon doesn’t help much in to spy on the enemies.

“In a war like situation, if a country wants to spy on its enemies there are various ways to do it, for example, Google Earth. All you need is good resolution photos. Why do we even need this?”

Raman told News18

Raman also said that the Cold war and Space Era of the 1980s are far gone and if A-SAT was an effective tool for wars, other countries would be interested in developing them too, but they aren't.

Saying that A-SAT won’t give any strategic advantage to India, Raman said that this is being done to show the country 's space strength.

"This is is just about optics. It's a part of the aggressive posture, this is just telling the country that we have muscle," he said.

Raman also told News18 that it was “distasteful” for ISRO to be associated with a mission like Shakti, since it has always made efforts for peace-building.

(With inputs from News18)