Pak expands satellite network after Sindoor intelligence gaps

Operation Sindoor exposed Pakistan’s space surveillance weaknesses, prompting urgent satellite modernization efforts.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

When Pakistani commanders struggled to make sense of battlefield movements during Operation Sindoor in May 2025, the problem wasn’t confusion on the ground — it was in orbit.

Delayed and infrequent satellite imagery left Rawalpindi's General Headquarters blind to key developments, exposing a weakness long known inside Pakistan's security establishment: its space-based intelligence system couldn't keep up with the pace of modern conflict.

That shortfall set off an urgent push to expand and diversify the country’s surveillance capabilities.

Within months, Pakistan had launched three new satellites, reopened dormant European imagery channels, and deepened partnerships with China, Turkey and the United States — an effort meant to close a strategic gap that became visible in war.

In reality, the effort began earlier. In mid-January, months before the Sindoor conflict and the Pahalgam massacre — which Indian intelligence agencies have assessed was coordinated by handlers in Pakistan — Islamabad had overseen two major satellite launches within just three days.

The first, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 under the Transporter-12 mission, carried PAUSAT-1, a 16U nano-satellite developed by Air University, Islamabad, with Istanbul Technical University (ITU). The platform carries a high-resolution multispectral imager with roughly 1.5-metre ground resolution and a hyperspectral sensor capable of distinguishing terrain, vegetation and infrastructure in greater detail.