Agreement on Maritime Security | 07 Mar 2019

Recently the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its French counterpart National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) signed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in India by May 2019.

• The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track movement of ships globally – and in particular those moving in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands. 
• It provides for a maritime surveillance centre to be set up in India by May 2019.
• For the next phase of the programme, studies for an orbital infrastructure to be operated jointly by the two countries are ongoing. CNES is working with its industry partners and with ISRO to devise the most appropriate technical solution.
• Earlier the two agencies have already put up two climate and ocean weather monitoring satellites Megha-Tropiques (of 2011) and SARAL-AltiKa (2013).
• This fleet will be augmented with the launch of Oceansat-3-Argos mission in 2020 and a future joint infrared Earth-observation satellite.