US didn't spy on India's ASAT test: Pentagon
Washington: The Pentagon has strongly denied the reports that the US spied on India's anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test by sending a reconnaissance aircraft from its base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to monitor the development.
It, however, said the United States was aware about India's first test-fire of an anti-satellite missile.
"No US assets were spying on India. In fact, the US continues to expand its enduring partnership with India, resulting in enhanced interoperability and stronger economic ties," US Defense Department spokesperson Lt Col David W Eastburn told PTI.
Aircraft Spots, which monitors military air movements, had said that a US Air Force's reconnaissance aircraft from its base in Diego Garcia went "for a mission in the Bay of Bengal to monitor India's anti-satellite missile test".
This was interpreted by many that the US spied on Indian ASAT test.
"I don't think that it implies coordination between India and the US," astronomer Jonathan McDowell from the prestigious Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told PTI on the Aircraft Spots report.
"This implies that the US intelligence community were aware of the test in advance because to some extent they're spying on India," he alleged.
"Everybody spies on their friends as well as their enemies. That's the way the world works these days. It would be surprising if the US were not detecting or observing the launch site and aware of activities preparing for the test. So one assumes that they knew it was coming," he claimed.
McDowell, who is a staff member at the Chandra X-ray Center and author and editor of Jonathan's Space Report, an e-mail-distributed newsletter documenting satellite launches, said he has not looked into the issue of the aircraft, but it is certainly not surprising that the US would fly a sensor aircraft to try and observe the test.
The Pentagon, however, strongly denied the spying allegation.
"It's a relationship so strong that no topic is off limits," Eastburn said.
"Both nations enjoy shared principles regarding our respect of sovereignty, free and fair trade, adherence to international norms, and peaceful resolution of disputes," he said.
Air Force Space Command Commander Lt Gen David D Thompson told lawmakers Thursday that the US was aware that India's ASAT test was coming.
"First of all, we knew it was coming because of flight bans that India had announced and information they published previously. The launch occurred at 1.39 AM EST," he told members of the powerful Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces during a Congressional hearing.
"First of all, it was detected, characterised and reported by Air Force Missile Warning systems and Airmen at Buckley AFB. Immediately after the test (it struck the target vehicle), the Joint Space Ops Center and USAF 18 Space control Squadron began collecting information about the breakup of the vehicle," Thompson said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Wednesday announced that India successfully test-fired an anti-satellite missile by shooting down a live satellite, describing it as a rare achievement that puts the country in an exclusive club of space super powers.
The test made India the fourth country in the world after the US, Russia and China to acquire the strategic capability to shoot down enemy satellites.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
