Ajey Lele

Consultant, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘China’s Space Dream is getting Bigger’ has been published in Udai India on 10 February 2023.

China’s space programme has leapfrogged. They have multipronged space agenda from social, economic, scientific to strategic sectors. It is important for states like India to continuously keep a track of China’s fore into the space domain and design its own space policies accordingly, says Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 10 February, 2023

Consultant, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘China’s balloon making the Sino-US relations hotter’ has been published in Financial Express on 06 February 2023.

It would take some time for the truth to come out (provided that the US decides to share with the rest of the world), however it appears that the (unguided) travelling of one (weather) balloon has ended up bringing in lot of bad weather in the Sino-US relationship, says Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 6 February, 2023

Consultant, MP-IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘US Air Force F-22 Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off South Carolina Coast’ has been published in Taaza Khabar News on 05 February 2023.

The US military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the East Coast in the United States (US) floating at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. Though the balloon did not pose any military or physical threat, its intrusion into American airspace over several days is being viewed as an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty, says Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 5 February, 2023

Consultant MP-IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘S&T and Space Budgets….no major push’ has been published in Financial Express on 02 February 2023.

The article takes a broad overview in respect of the ‘demands on grants’ given in the budget for two ministries: one, the Ministry of Science and Technology (S & T) and two, the Department of Space.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 2 February, 2023

Consultant Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘Space debris: is the USA serious about solving the problem?’ has been published in Taazakhabar News on 11 January 2023.

It is not clear why is USA on one hand pushing for a mechanism to stop ASAT tests which end up creating space debris, while on another hand it wants to go solo when it comes to the physical removal of debris. This raises suspicion about the actual intent of the US toward ensuring global space security, says Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 11 January, 2023

Consultant Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘Indian Space Force: A Strategic Inevitability’ has been published in Space Policy on 08 December 2022.

The article attempts to recognise India's atypical space security challenges and debates on the possible response mechanism to these security challenges. The article further argues that constituting an Indian Space Force could be the most apt response mechanism in this context.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 8 December, 2022

MP-IDSA Consultant, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘India is onboard of China's Space Station’ has been published by the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC) on 01 November 2022.

In May 2018, China and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) announced an opportunity to submit proposals for the conduct of space experiments onboard China's space station.… Scientific organisations from various countries have joined hands together in designing these experiments. Indian agencies are involved in the conduct of two experiments amongst the group of nine experiments which have been finalised,says Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 1 November, 2022

MP-IDSA Consultant, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘ISRO’s LVM3-M2 mission: an expansion of India’s commercial activities’ has been published in ‘The Space Review’ on 31 October 2022.

It would be of interest to see how India succeeds to fill the void created by Russia being removed from the launch market by sanctions. It is also important for India to develop its own market beyond filling this void, says Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 31 October, 2022

Consultant, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s article ‘NASA, asteroids, and the Planetary Defence that gives the US strategic edge in space race’ has been published in Financial Express on 01 October 2022.

NASA had employed a Kinetic Impact Method to shorten the orbital path of an asteroid called Dimorphos, which is around 6.5 million miles away from the Earth, writes Gp Capt Lele.

Read Complete Article [+]

• Published: 1 October, 2022

Consultant Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp Capt Ajey Lele’s book ‘Strategic Meteorology: Role of Weather in Wars’ has been published.

The Space domain is emerging as a fourth dimension of warfare and space meteorology has gained prominence. Also, militaries are required to be conscious about the realities of climate change and need to rework on some of their strategies. In this backdrop; the importance of timely, accurate and mission-specific weather prognosis is increasing significantly. This book argues that now the time has come to critically dwell on the ‘strategic’ dimension of meteorology.

Read More [+[

• Published: 30 September, 2022