Pentagon to use Indian weather satellites

Washington: The US is planning to use the services of an Indian satellite to get quicker weather information in war-torn Afghanistan, crucial for the movement of its military assets, the Pentagon has said.

The Pentagon decided to use Indian satellite after European weather satellites were moved to cover operations in Iraq and Syria, following which it explored the possibility of taking the services of Chinese satellites but dropped the idea after initial evaluation due to hacking apprehensions by the Chinese.

As a result, the Pentagon decided to use Indian satellite which is already operational and whose data is available at various American universities, senior Pentagon officials told US lawmakers during Congressional hearing on 'Weather Satellite Programs' convened by the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on Environment.

We are working in conjunction with our NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) partners to make that happen for us," he said. Responding to a question, Stoffler said India was not the first
option for the Pentagon.