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https://theconversation.com/india-and-pakistans-79-year-rivalry-has-made-the-dangerous-move-into-space-286966>
"India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day war in May 2025. But while the
media narrative was dominated by fighter jets, drones and missiles, the most
consequential contest unfolded in orbit a few hundred kilometres up.
That short war was, arguably, the first between two nuclear-armed states to be
shaped decisively by the use of satellites. Few analysts acknowledged this –
and the silence matters. South Asia is now sliding into a new kind of arms race
with no rules to restrain it.
The opening night on May 6 carried a lesson that should unsettle far larger air
forces than those of the two countries involved. Pakistan, with a smaller
military, fought a tightly networked battle that fused ground radar, airborne
early warning, data links and satellite navigation into a single kill chain,
planning and executing attacks. Pakistan’s strategy has been developed by an
air force whose leadership had drilled that doctrine for years.
Pakistani officials claimed that one of their Chinese-built J-10C fighters
downed an Indian Rafale with a PL-15 missile at more than 200kms. This was a
kill made from beyond visual range – something with little precedent in combat.
India disputes the account, but its own chief of defence staff later conceded
that the air force lost aircraft that day.
India regrouped and struck back hard over the following days. But the opening
exchange was decided less by numbers, or by any single aircraft’s
specifications, than by how well each side fused its radar, early warning, data
links and missiles into one system, and by the training of the crews flying it.
Sitting over all this was space-based technology. Modern strikes run on
satellites: satellite imagery to find targets, navigation to guide weapons and
links to hold it together. Both sides drew on them and both used them to reach
beyond their borders."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
