NEW DELHI, INDIA – In a bold move to bolster national security, India is fast-tracking the launch of over 50 advanced spy satellites equipped with night-time imaging capabilities, sources familiar with the plans revealed. This initiative follows critical surveillance gaps exposed during the intense 2025 border conflict with Pakistan, known as Operation Sindoor, which nearly escalated into full-scale war between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
The Narendra Modi administration aims to deploy these satellites under the Space-Based Surveillance-3 program, with the first batch of 52 potentially orbiting by April 2026, according to reports from The Times of India. Upgrades will shift from electro-optical to synthetic aperture radar technology, enabling imaging through darkness and clouds, a capability currently lacking in India’s more than 100 operational satellites, per N2YO.com data. This addresses a key weakness, as India’s current systems require days to rescan areas, forcing reliance on U.S. commercial satellite data during the 2025 clashes.
Further enhancements include inter-satellite data relay to bypass ground stations, cutting monitoring gaps to mere hours, and the development of “bodyguard satellites” to shield orbiting assets from threats. Ground stations are planned in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Scandinavia, pending local approvals for faster, more reliable intelligence flow. Overall, India eyes up to 150 new satellites at a projected cost of 260 billion rupees (about $3.1 billion), as stated by ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan in April 2025.
The push underscores lessons from May 2025’s four-day standoff, where satellites played a pivotal role in targeting but were hampered by nighttime blindness. China aided Pakistan by optimizing its satellite coverage, an Indian defense research group noted, highlighting Beijing’s edge in all-weather imaging.
ISRO will leverage its rockets for launches, despite recent setbacks like a January failure, the second in under a year, offset by successes such as the December 2025 BlueBird Block-2 mission for U.S. firm AST SpaceMobile. Private players like Skyroot Aerospace are joining the effort to fortify India’s space monitoring. India’s Defence Ministry and ISRO did not comment on the developments.