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The country’s first ever Antariksha Abhyas – 2024’, a three day Exercise to war-game the growing threats from and to Space Based Assets and Services, is being conducted by the Defence Space Agency of Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff.

The three day space war games exercise began on Monday the 11th of November 2024.

Exercise Antariksha Abhyas is expected to help secure national strategic objectives in space and integrate India’s space capability in military operations.

In a release issued by the Ministry of Defence, in his opening address, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said, “Space, once considered the final frontier is now the critical enabler of India’s defence and security apparatus. With its rich legacy of space exploration and growing military capabilities, India is well  positioned to navigate the challenges posed to space based capabilities”.

Highlighting that space was becoming increasingly congested, contested, competitive and commercial, the CDS impressed upon the military leadership to secure our national interests in space by fostering innovation and developing cutting edge technologies and state of the art systems in collaboration with DRDO, ISRO and Academia.

The Space Exercise aims to provide enhanced understanding of space based assets and services and to gain understanding of operational dependency on space segment between stakeholders.

In addition, it intends to identify vulnerabilities in conduct of operations in the event of denial or disruptions of space based services.

Crack teams of top experts are taking part in Antariksha Abhyas from Defence Space Agency and its allied units along with personnel from the Army, Navy and the Air Force.

Specialist branches under Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff viz Defence Cyber Agency, Defence Intelligence Agency and Strategic Forces Command have also send their experts to conduct this unique exercise.