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In his address to the nation on Wednesday, 27 March, PM Modi announced that India successfully tested its Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Missile in ‘Mission Shakti’.
With this accomplishment, India joins an elite space club of just three other countries in the world to successfully test out its ASAT weapons.
“It is an important step towards securing India’s safety, economic growth and technological advancement.”Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Other Countries with A-SAT Weapons
China
On 11 January 2007, the People's Republic of China successfully tested out its SC-19 A-SAT missile. In its test, the missile destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite.
In 2013, the Chinese government launched a suborbital rocket to study the upper ionosphere, but according to a Reuters report, the US government sources described this as a ground-based A-SAT system.
China also tested another missile on 5 February 2018 called the Dong-Neng-3. According to a report in The Diplomat, China’s exoatmospheric ballistic missile could be used as an ASAT weapon. Chinese state media announced that the test was purely defensive.
Russia
On 18 November 2015, Russia successfully tested its A-SAT missile called PL-19 Nudol, according to a report by CNBC. The Nudol was tested three more times after that, in May 2016, December 2016 and March 2018.
Another report by CNBC said that a new type of ASAT missile was photographed on a Russian MiD-31. The weapon is believed to be ready by 2022 and will target communication and imagery satellites in low Earth orbit.
The USA
The US Navy successfully launched a ship-based missile, the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 ABM weapon –which would act as an ASAT weapon – at its own previously launched defunct satellite on 14 February 2008, reported AP News.
(With inputs from CNBC, AP News, The Diplomat and Reuters )
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