The use of offensive weapons in space, notably in the light of Beijing’s recent test of an anti-satellite missile, will be the most talked about topic early next month at a massive congregation of foreign air chiefs in the Capital. The IAF will play host to the air chiefs of 37 countries — including the US, China, Russia and Israel — on February 4 and 5 at a seminar on international aerospace power.

The seminar — Aerospace Power in Tomorrow’s World — is ostensibly structured to include discussions on the emerging geopolitical context of aerospace power, joint operations integrating aerospace operation and surface forces and cooperative aerospace operations in future. However, the strategic ripples created by China’s test earlier this month is certain to compel a measure of notes-sharing.

While the US has criticised Beijing for testing the missile, Russia has plainly refused to acknowledge that the test took place at all. New Delhi, which officially opposes the weaponisation of space, has saved its comments although data regarding the test has begun to trickle in for analysis by research agencies under the Defence Ministry.

But it was for the IAF that the test proved a real wake-up call. The IAF’s outgoing chief Air Marshal SP Tyagi has made out a robust case for a dedicated Aerospace Command, a unified formation in Thiruvananthapuram, though the government — emboldened by the Finance Ministry’s view that a dedicated formation is too expensive — has gone slow.

With huge network-centric warfare infrastructure being developed or purchased and massively complex communications networks being built for military use, the services feel the government’s apathy to an exclusive aerospace formation is misguided and retrograde. But work has begun. For starters, the IAF has created a special space sub-branch at Air Headquarters, training officers and men in the utilisation of space. In fact, in Gandhinagar today for a conference at the South Western Air Command, the air chief said, “As the reach of the IAF is expanding, it has become extremely important that we exploit space and for that you need space assets. We are an aerospace power with trans-oceanic reach. We have started training a core group of people for the aerospace command.”