Dedicated satellites for Navy, IAF to be soon launched

NEW DELHI: Armed with the capability of providing real time data from multiple sites, the dedicated communication satellites for Indian Navy and Air Force will be launched in the next two years, government told the Lok Sabha today.

In a written reply to a question in the House, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "The Naval Satellite is planned to be launched in 2012-13... A dedicated communication satellite for Air Force is planned to be launched in 2013-2014."

The Tri-services Defence Communication Network (DCN) is being progressed as per the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). DCN envisages a network of optical fibre cables, satellite earth stations and transportable and portable satellite terminals with high security features, he told the House.

"The design of these systems have features that enable conduct of simultaneous real time networked operations from multiple sites to cater for contingencies and failures, as well as hardware redundancies for fail-safe operations," Antony said.

Replying to a question on testing of Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) he said, "Pinaka was test fired on 28-29 March. Ten Rockets were fired. Objective of the trial was testing of fuse system."

Developed by DRDO, Pinaka weapon system has already been inducted into Service with the Indian Army raising its two regiments.