"It is a culmination of 17 years of rigorous work by Indian space scientists. India took a firm decision on IRNSS in 1999 after the US government refused to share GPS data that would provide vital information on Pakistani troops position during Kargil war. As in the previous launches of the IRNSS satellites, PSLV-C41 has also used ‘XL’ version of PSLV equipped with six strap-ons, each carrying 12 tonnes of propellant."
Given India's rising position in the world economically (they'll have the fifth largest economy in two years or so) and militarily, they'd have been crazy to not go forward with their own system regardless. That's particularly the case given India has a very complex position among all the powers, from the US to the EU to Russia to China. They're far less blatantly aligned one direction or another than the rest.
Their general geo-political neighborhood presents wild security considerations. To be a fully independent power in the coming decades, they'll want to gradually acquire their own capabilities at most things.
This seems to have moderately more information. It seems like maybe they wanted to use GPS capabilities in their guided weapons systems, and the US would not permit it or perhaps threatened to disable the system in that theater? It’s a bit confusing and fuzzy.
You have men on the ground who can see the enemy position, they need to know exactly where they are to be able to know exactly where the enemy is. Without GPS you are relying on visual points of reference against maps of shaky providence.
Where you need more accuracy is when you want something at a long distance to do something - drop a bomb or something.
It's worth bearing in mind the Kargil War took place in 1999, and GPS Selective Availability wasn't turned off until May 2000. It might be that India asked for the SA seed key so their own forces/missiles could navigate more accurately, but were denied?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kargil_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_warfare#Kashmir_confl...
> The most dangerous and volatile of all mountain conflicts involves the ongoing one between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region.
This is the classic way with map + compass. GPS just makes it easier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSNohNPqWlU
> Kalam came back empty-handed, but went on to develop the Pace Plus computer with help from the Indian Institute of Science and others in two years. And, Pace Plus proved to be 20 times faster than Craig!
This type of thing sounds incredibly childish and jingoistic to my American ears. Does it read better to folks who learned to speak English in India, or is it just really awful writing?
Also, as best I can tell, there is no "Craig" super computer. Does the author mean Cray? And if so, why was the scientist asking the USG? You would normally want to get such computers from the manufacturer, not a foreign government, however friendly.
I agree that it is awful writing. I hope the article above is written better.
> Does the author mean Cray? And if so, why was the scientist asking the USG? You would normally want to get such computers from the manufacturer, not a foreign government, however friendly.
It's not possible to directly purchase from manufacturers if the US Government is going to block the purchase on various grounds. Don't forget that there was a period where sanctions and arms embargo was also imposed on India. It's a different thing that today the US considers India a "strategic partner" but it wasn't always the case.
As far as Cray goes, they even setup an award in the name of the scientist mentioned in the article (who also served as the President of India from 2002 to 2007 [1]): https://www.cray.com/blog/cray-hpc-awards-honor-achievements...
Because these things all have export controls. You don't see it if your shipping to a domestic address, but even in Canada I have to certify I won't re-export it when I buy electronic components from US suppliers.
The US can lock countries out of higher resolution GPS at will - this (and GLONASS) make sense because of it.
The basic use is navigation (the N is GNSS). That capability can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Chances are that even though it will be used by the Indian military it will be used far more often for civilian purposes.
Yet on the use cases for this, I don't think India would have ponied up the money for this if it wasn't for the military use. With GPS, Galileo, Beidou and Glonass, the civilian navigation problem is pretty much solved. Are you aware of a use case it is solving that the others aren't?
Not US', nor India's.