Armed forces look to join hands with satcom firms

Defence forces conduct trials with OneWeb and Jio-SES; talks on with Starlink

- Shouvik Das & Jatin Grover

India is looking to give its defence forces a competitive edge in modern warfare and security through state-of-the-art satellite communications (satcom) in partnership with the private sector, four people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The move will also open up new business vistas for satcom providers, which are yet to commence operations in the country. The department of telecommunications (DoT) is expected to conduct spectrum allocation sometime soon.

Multiple trials have been conducted by the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy with private satcom providers such as OneWeb and Jio-SES over the past two years, the people cited above said.

Trials with OneWeb, which is backed by Airtel's parent firm Bharti Enterprises, have offered low-latency, satellite-based network connectivity with military-grade encryption on multiple occasions. Jio-SES, the second Indian satcom service provider with a licence from the DoT, has also held more than two defence-sector trials, two of the people cited above said.