Skip to main content

Tomorrow's GSAT-7A launch to give Indian Military Drones more sting



The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch India's newest military satellite, GSAT-7A, into orbit on 19 December. The satellite will be carried by the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-F11 (GSLV-F11) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The GSLV-F-11/GSAT-7A mission marks ISRO's 35th communication satellite and the 13th flight of the GSLV rocket to orbit.

The rocket's third stage cryogenic engines were successfully assembled at the launch pad on Saturday.


GSAT-7A satellite: All you need to know ::

GSAT-7A is ISRO's 35th communications satellite built exclusively for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Army.

The satellite will expand the communication capabilities of the IAF in different ways. First, GSAT-7A will allow cross-connectivity between different ground radar stations, airbases and Airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft like the Beriev A-50 Phalcon and DRDO AEW&CS.

The satellite will also boost the air force's network-dependent warfare capabilities, enhancing its abilities to operate globally.

It is also expected to give a big push to drone operations in the Indian military by helping the Navy reduce its reliance on ground-based control stations and switch to satellite-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), that offer better range and endurance, industry experts told Business Standard.

ISRO's 2.25-ton GSAT-7A is designed to work in the Ku-band frequency and houses an 'I-2K' bus, which functions as the satellite's communication hub or service module.


GSAT-7A's nuts and bolts ::

The I-2K satellite bus was developed by ISRO and now marketed by its commercial arm, Antrix. The 'I' in I-2K stands for INSAT, a series of communication satellites developed and launched by ISRO, and the 2k gives away the weight-category of the satellites it is designed for: the 2,000-kg class.

The satellite buses developed by ISRO are specifically developed for small and medium weight satellites.

With deployable solar arrays and batteries to power the satellite over the course of its 8-year lifetime. It is also designed with Gregorian reflector antennae, which are antennas that offer high gains for radio signals that need to be transmitted over long distances.


An ambitious 5-year pipeline ::

The GSLV-F11/GSAT-7A mission will be ISRO's last in 2018, with the launch of Chandrayaan-2 and the PSLV-C44 remote-sensing satellite launch lined up in January 2019.

The agency has seven missions lined up in 2019, alongside work on its first ever human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, marked for December 2021. There will be two unmanned missions leading up to the manned mission to conduct ground tests, reliability tests and ensure a smooth landing before ISRO's chosen one — the GSLV Mark III — is rated human-spaceflight-ready.

ISRO also has multiple interplanetary missions in its pipeline over the next few years: the Chandrayaan-2 mission in January 2019, the Aditya L1 probe to the Sun's orbit in 2019, the Mangalyaan-2 mission to Mars in 2022/2023 and the Shukrayaan mission to Venus in 2023.
Source Link:http://www.defencenews.in/article/Tomorrows-GSAT-7A-launch-to-give-Indian-Military-Drones-more-sting-582114

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Best Sainik Schools In India as per NDA Selection

In this article you will get to know about Best Sainik Schools in India, Best Sainik School of India and top 10 Sainik schools in India When India became independent, most of the officers in the defense at that time used to come from elite families. To rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the India Military, V.K Krishna Menon came up with the idea of Sainik Schools. The idea was to prepare students for Entry in the NDA. In Sainik Schools, deserving students can get high-quality education irrespective of their income or class background. The mission of Sainik schools is to prepare the cadets academically, physically, and mentally to enter the portals of the NDA. Today there are 33 Sainik schools running and proposed for future covering all the states of the country. But it has always been a topic of discussion that which of these is the best Sainik School school in India. Why do children take admission in Sainik Schools?  So that they can become offi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retirement Age of Troops in Army, Air Force & Navy Set to Increase, Says CDS General Rawat

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has said that the retirement age of jawans in the Army, airmen in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and sailors in the Navy will be extended as it could benefit nearly 15 lakh men of all three armed forces.  “We are soon bringing a policy to extend the service profile of the men (forces nomenclature for troops) and have an increased minimum retirement age,” said General Rawat in an exclusive interaction with The Tribune yesterday. On being asked if he was looking to cut down the manpower costs as rising salaries and pensions were taking away a large portion of the budget, General Rawat said, “I am looking at manpower costs. Why should a jawan serve for just 15 or 17 years, why cannot he serve for 30 years? We are losing trained manpower.”  Easing fears that this policy would change the age profile of the fighting force, he said that the frontline combatant could be young. “We have an Army Medical Corps, why can’t the nursing assistant serve ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Indian Navy's coastal battery project in Bay of Bengal on track

The Indian Navy's ambitious coastal battery project at Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal has been back on track as a land of 11 acres has been identified in the delta region and the land acquisition process is underway though the project's concept and shape have been changed from a permanent to a temporary one and from static to mobile. This was informed by Naval Officer-in-Charge (West Bengal) Commodore Suprobho K De on Monday. "The coastal battery project was never closed in principle. It is still underway. Progress about the project became a bit slow earlier somehow. The entire concept is now about having a temporary and mobile infrastructure for firing missles. It is now conceived as a mobile coastal battery," he said at INS Netaji Subhas in Hastings on the eve of the Navy Day celebrations. Commodore De elaborated, "We were looking for a land of around 11 acres to set up a naval base from where Brahmos missles can be fired. The land has been identified. The p...
Post a Comment
Read more