In a significant increase for the Indian Army’s communication functionality, the defence ministry on Wednesday signed a ₹3,000-crore contract with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the business arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), for a complicated communication satellite tv for pc, GSAT 7B, for the military to satisfy a long-standing want, officers conversant in the matter mentioned.

Unlike the Indian Air Force and the navy, the military at the moment doesn’t have a devoted satellite tv for pc.

“The satellite will considerably enhance the communication capability of the army by providing mission critical beyond line-of-sight communication to troops and formations as well as weapon and airborne platforms,” the defence ministry mentioned.

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The five-tonne geostationary satellite tv for pc will likely be developed indigenously by ISRO.

The military is prone to get the satellite tv for pc in 2026, the officers mentioned.

The satellite tv for pc with superior safety features will help tactical communication necessities of not solely troops deployed on the bottom, but additionally remotely piloted plane, air defence weapons and different mission essential and fireplace help platforms, the officers mentioned.

“The dedicated satellite for the army is a long-standing need and will enhance the network centric warfare capabilities of the army, making them more secure and jam-proof. The army was so far dependent on the air force’s GSAT-7A satellite,” mentioned Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), director normal, Centre for Air Power Studies.

The military has additionally carried out an in depth examine of cyber and electromagnetic warfare within the Russia-Ukraine warfare, and established the efficacy of a dependable satellite tv for pc communication system that may present high-speed web providers to distant areas, as beforehand reported by HT.

India’s defence acquisition council (DAC), the federal government’s prime weapons procurement physique, had cleared the military proposal for a GSAT-7B satellite tv for pc in March 2022 to sharpen its operational capabilities. The GSAT-7 collection of superior satellites constructed by ISRO are designed to offer communication capabilities to customers over huge expanses together with oceans.

Many elements and sub-assemblies and methods of the satellite tv for pc will likely be sourced from indigenous producers, together with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and start-ups, the ministry mentioned, including that the undertaking will generate an employment of round 300,000 man-days over the subsequent three-and-a-half years.

The ministry additionally signed two different contracts price round ₹2,400 crore with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to sharpen the air defence capabilities of the armed forces.

The first of those, price ₹1,982 crore, is to implement Project Akashteer, an automatic air defence management and reporting system that can permit the military’s air defence models to function in an built-in method.

Akashteer will allow the monitoring of low-level airspace over the battle areas of the Indian Army and successfully management the ground-based air defence weapon methods, the defence ministry mentioned.

The second contract price ₹412 crore with BEL is for Sarang digital help measure methods for Indian Navy helicopters.

All the three initiatives will present a lift to the self-reliance marketing campaign as they’re below an important class of acquisition for indigenisation below the defence procurement coverage, or the Indian-IDDM class. IDDM stands for indigenously designed, developed and manufactured.