India To Operationalise Cyber and Space Defense Units This Week

India’s Defense Secretary Sanjay Mitra has revealed this week that two separate cyber and space agencies for defense will soon enter operation to protect defense-related websites from hackers.

The Indian governmental defense-related websites have survived hundreds of cyber-attacks in the last few years, Sputnik news reported Friday.

"The Defense Secretary apprised the audience (members of unified commanders' conference) that the defense cyber and space agencies and special operations division will soon become a reality," an Army official said on Tuesday after the closing of the two-day unified commanders' conference in New Delhi.

The new agencies will employ personnel from all armed forces and some of the divisions currently not involved in combat. The agency with offensive and defensive capabilities will be headed by a Major General-rank officer.

Currently, India's space capabilities are mostly driven by civil and commercial requirements; steps for exploitation of space for military applications have been expedited by the government.

"Space bestows immense force multiplication capability on the armed forces, and the dependence on space assets for military operation is rapidly increasing. Leveraging space power would include protection of our national space assets and exploitation of space to enable defense capabilities across the conflict spectrum," the joint doctrine of Indian Armed Forces reads.

The Special Forces operations will be conducted in support of offensive and/or defensive operations. Operations are to be conducted by specially selected troops of the armed forces who are trained, equipped and organized to operate in hostile territory in all dimensions — land, air, and sea; and can also be employed isolated from the main combat forces.

"Special Forces units will be tasked to develop area specialization in their intended operational theaters to achieve an optimum effect" the joint doctrine said.

The demand to set up cyber and space agency and special operation division was initiated years ago but the process was left incomplete.

Apart from setting up special agencies, armed forces have also decided to incorporate sports medicine in the methodology of training cadets, recruits and combat soldiers with the purpose of making physical training in the military even more scientific.

The forces also introduced the Bachelor of Technology course in the National Defense Academy, which will further the technological threshold of future military leaders.