India’s security challenges no longer sit neatly along its land borders or maritime edges; they extend upward, into an increasingly contested and weaponised space domain. In this environment, Integrated Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) is not just a capability; it is the backbone of credible deterrence and rapid response. The urgency to fast-track India’s Space-Based Surveillance programme (SBS-III) reflects a growing recognition that information dominance, real-time, autonomous, and sovereign, is the new strategic high ground.
However, beyond what is required is important. SBS III to have a constellation of our own, dedicated to military expeditions, to help us tackle problems persisting because of elements like Anti-Satellite (ASATs), jammers, etc.
India needs these clusters of next-generation satellites equipped with SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), Electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging, RF Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT). These clusters of satellites and technical systems are required to establish a sovereign, space-based surveillance capability for the Indian Defence Forces.
At its core, SBS-III represents a decisive shift from dependence to self-reliance. A constellation of 52 indigenous satellites, 21 developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and 31 by private manufacturers, planned across Low-Earth, Medium-Earth, and Geostationary orbits by 2029–2030, is not merely an expansion of assets. It is an architectural overhaul of how India gathers, processes, and acts upon intelligence. The emphasis on real-time imagery and persistent surveillance aims to close critical gaps that have historically forced reliance on foreign data, often delayed, filtered, or politically contingent.
But numbers alone do not guarantee strategic advantage. What India requires is not just more satellites, but smarter constellations, clusters designed for resilience, redundancy, and rapid revisit rates. In an era where adversaries are developing sophisticated counter-space capabilities, from ASAT weapons to electronic jamming and cyber intrusions, survivability becomes as important as capability.
A distributed network of microsatellites, smaller, cheaper, and faster to deploy, offers precisely this resilience. If one node is compromised, the system endures.
ISR sovereign satellites, the foundational national security
This is where next-generation payloads define the future. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, capable of delivering up to 25 cm resolution, are indispensable. Unlike traditional optical systems, SAR can see through clouds, darkness, and even dense vegetation, ensuring uninterrupted surveillance in all weather conditions, a decisive advantage in regions like the Himalayas or during monsoon operations. SAR satellites are a type of Earth Observation Satellites that use radar technology to create images of the Earth’s surface.
Indian Earth observation deep-tech startup GalaxEye Space plans to launch 20 satellites. How it happened is one crucial factor that cuts across, reducing the time-consuming process with the government’s machinery. Their partnership with NewSpace India Limited has demonstrated how reducing lengthy processes can accelerate deep-tech development.
The lesson is clear: scale in space is inseparable from speed on the ground.
Another Indian space tech startup Xovian Aerospace, is launching its own global constellation of sovereign AI-driven RF satellites targeting SIGINT & GEOINT fusion for both commercial and defence segments, addressing the critical data gaps that exist in the conventional remote sensing systems.
Complementing SAR with electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), radio frequency (RF) sensors for Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) platforms can enable the creation of a layered ISR ecosystem. Each layer enriches the other, transforming raw data into actionable intelligence.
India’s ambition to operate one of the world’s largest ISR constellations is therefore a strategic necessity. High revisit frequency, global coverage, and real-time analytics can fundamentally alter operational tempo, enabling everything from border monitoring and maritime domain awareness to precision targeting and disaster response.
Private sectors, constellations of satellites & new space tech
Yet, the most consequential shift in SBS-III lies in its embrace of the private sector. For decades, India’s space programme was a state-led enterprise. Today, startups are redefining the pace of innovation. Companies like GalaxEye Space, Xovian Aerospace and ICEEYE are pushing the frontier with plans for constellations and breakthroughs such as optical-SAR fusion satellite systems and RF-based SIGINT & GEOINT that combine the strengths of multiple sensing technologies into a single platform.
However, Indian space players must also resist the temptation to reinvent the wheel when global innovation cycles are accelerating fast. Instead, it should focus on integrating cutting-edge technologies, AI-driven analytics, autonomous tasking, and real-time data fusion into its ISR architecture. Artificial intelligence, in particular, is the force multiplier that transforms surveillance into foresight. Institutions like the Defence AI Council and the Defence AI Project Agency, alongside the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, are laying the groundwork. With sustained funding and clearer pathways for deployment, AI can enable predictive intelligence, automated threat detection, and faster decision cycles, compressing the “observe–orient–decide–act” loop in India’s favour.
What India could do to counter in space
The geopolitical context makes this transformation unavoidable. The United States, China, and Russia are rapidly advancing in space warfare capabilities, spanning kinetic strikes, electronic warfare, cyber operations, and space-to-ground systems. The weaponisation of space is no longer theoretical; it is operational. For India, which faces a complex security environment across multiple fronts, falling behind in ISR capabilities would mean strategic blindness in moments that demand clarity.
The true test of SBS-III will not be its launch schedule, but its integration. Satellites, sensors, AI systems, and command structures must function as a unified grid, seamlessly connecting space-based assets with ground forces, naval platforms, and air operations.
Integrated ISR is not about collecting more data; it is about ensuring the right data reaches the right decision-maker at the right time. What is crucial here about the space-based integrated ISR is that while AI remains a completely new domain, India has adapted and started acting towards integrating it in all the domains of warfare. The institutional initiatives like Defence AI Council (DAIC) and Defence AI Project Agency (DAIPA) currently work on AI utility, along with DRDO’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CARE), which handles the resource and development. This is complemented by the annual Rs 100 crore funding that supports military AI projects.
Roadblocks– speed matters in space
Yet for all its ambitions, India’s space sector confronts structural headwinds that could blunt the momentum of programmes like SBS-III. While the industry continues to grow at a compelling pace, backed by a liberalised FDI regime and the creation of IN-SPACe, it is yet to achieve the scale and depth of capital that characterise the American or European space ecosystems. The United States benefits from decades of long-duration defence contracts that allow companies like Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to make multi-cycle investments in tech and talent; Europe’s ESA framework provides predictable, multi-year programme funding for private players.
India, by contrast, still operates largely on project-to-project procurement cycles, leaving startups in a perpetual state of revenue uncertainty and limiting investment in the sustained R&D that sovereign ISR demands. Correcting this requires a deliberate shift toward long-term government contracts, five to ten-year agreements that give private manufacturers the balance-sheet confidence to scale manufacturing, hire specialised engineers, and de-risk tech development.
Equally critical is the need for an integrated, unified regulatory and policy architecture.
Today, jurisdiction over space activities is distributed across ISRO, IN-SPACe, the Department of Space, and multiple defence ministries, creating friction at precisely the junctures where the speed matters most. A single-window clearance mechanism and a harmonised national space policy would reduce the institutional drag that currently adds months to programmes.
India must also adopt a more outward posture, actively co-developing space projects with friendly nations and pushing for Technology Safeguard Agreements (TSAs) with a wider set of partners.
In that sense, SBS-III is both a technological programme and a strategic doctrine. It signals India’s intent to secure autonomy in one of the most contested domains of modern warfare. But it also demands a broader shift: faster procurement cycles, deeper public-private collaboration, and a willingness to prioritise scale over incrementalism.
Space is no longer a distant frontier. It is an operational theatre. And for India, the path to national security now runs through the constellations it builds, and the intelligence it can command in real time.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
END OF ARTICLE
