Private sector defence manufacturer Nibe Limited has set an ambitious seven-year plan to establish a constellation of military grade intelligence gathering satellites
India’s First Military-Grade Intelligence Satellite
Private sector defence manufacturer Nibe Limited has set an ambitious seven-year plan to establish a constellation of military grade intelligence gathering satellites that will be manufactured and launched in India. The company, which specialises in defence components and has contracts for subsystems in major projects like the Pinaka launcher, MRSAM and modular bridges, plans to launch a complement of 23 satellites at the earliest, taking it up to 40 in the longer term.
NSPL signed MoUs/agreements for a consortium of key Indian and global partners, including Larsen and Toubro, CENTUM, AgniKul, Skyroot, Space Fields, SISIR, CYRAN, and Thales Alenia Space (as Technology Partner), through this landmark initiative. With committed funding and strong R&D investments, NSPL is dedicated to addressing the space-based earth observation needs of Indian stakeholders while building the first private constellation in India.
At present, the country relies on limited sovereign satellites and expensive foreign satellite imagery that does not meet the evolving needs of national security. To address this, NSPL is undertaking a ground breaking initiative to establish private domestic Earth Observation All-Weather LEO Satellite Constellation, consisting of 40 satellites over the next five to six years.
As per plans, the satellites will offer military grade resolution of 50 cm with a high revisit time to cater for the needs of the armed forces. The constellation can be offered for either a lease term or for specific product requirements of the users. During the event, NSPL also signed agreements/MoUs with Indian and international companies, marking a pivotal step in establishing an indigenous and advanced earth observation capability for India.
Tata’s Military-grade Satellite Successfully Placed Into Orbit
India’s first military grade geospatial satellite manufactured in the private sector has been successfully launched and placed in orbit, with full functionality expected to be achieved within a few months. Built by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) at its Vemagal facility in Karnataka, the TSAT-1A was onboard the Bandwagon-1 mission launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in Florida.
The sub- metre resolution imaging satellite has given a signal that it is in the right orbit and tests will be run on it for the next few weeks before it is fully functional, TASL officials said. The satellite will provide military grade imagery with high resolution of less than one metre per pixel that will be downloaded and processed at a ground centre in India that is being built by TASL. While India has a few military spy satellites built by ISRO, this if the first such initiative in the private sector.
