To cite: S. Chandrashekar. The China US Space Rivalry & the New World Order What Should India Do?, ISSSP Report No. 03-2018. Bangalore: International Strategic and Security Studies Programme, National Institute of Advanced Studies, September 2018, available at http://isssp.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ISSSP-Report_03_2018.pdf
China and the US are following up on their visible demonstrations of war fighting capabilities in space with the necessary organizational changes needed to fight, win and deter wars in space. The setting up of the Strategic Support Force (SSF) with responsibilities for space, cyber and Electronic Warfare by China in 2015 was the first move. The US in response has gone one step further. It is setting up a new sixth service arm that will be exclusively responsible for all combat operations in space. It has finalized a plan that includes a new joint Space Development Agency (SDA), a new joint Space Operations Force (SOF) as well as a new joint Space Command. An integrated proposal on the new service arm will be submitted to Congress for approval in 2020.
Though these developments especially from China are likely to have a major impact, Indian decision makers seem to be blissfully unaware of the consequences. Neither the political establishment nor the military seem to understand how these will affect India’s war-fighting and war deterring capabilities in the information dominated world of today. Internal rigidities, lack of distributed domain expertise and an institutional inability to come to grips with the new realities are evident in the sporadic and uncoordinated responses that India has been making. There is no evidence that these trends are likely to reverse soon.