India's Satellite-Destroying Missile Sends Message to China
- Ballistic-missile test changes strategic calculus in Asia
- Delhi has ‘established itself as a space power,’ Modi says
People watch a live broadcast of Narendra Modi addressing the nation, in Amritsar on March 27.
Photographer: Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images
One month after an aging Indian Air Force jet was shot down in a dogfight with neighboring Pakistan, New Delhi has demonstrated a new weapons capability aimed at another, more powerful geopolitical rival: China.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a national address to announce India had “established itself as a space power” by sending an indigenously designed ballistic-missile interceptor up 300 kilometers (190 miles) to destroy a satellite orbiting the Earth. The move -- with political overtones just weeks ahead of a national election -- sends a stark message to India’s nuclear-armed rivals, China and Pakistan, and changes Asia’s strategic calculus by proving India has the ability to knock out enemy satellites.