India has recently experienced repeated failures with its rockets, resulting in the loss of all satellites and a paralyzed space-based reconnaissance network. Faced with this crisis, India is urgently investing 150 billion rupees to develop high-altitude pseudo-satellites as a stopgap measure. These so-called "pseudo-satellites" are essentially ultra-light electric drones operating in the near-space region. Powered by solar film panels and batteries, they charge during the day and rely on stored energy to maintain flight in extreme cold at night.
Theoretically, they can hover continuously for several weeks in specific airspace, functioning like a virtual surveillance tower suspended high above. Their altitude provides an extensive field of view, enabling persistent scanning of deep targets within their own airspace without crossing borders—making them a gray-zone tactic. It's extremely costly for adversaries to shoot them down with anti-aircraft missiles, and jamming or laser-based countermeasures are technically complex.
However, based on the technical specifications India has released, this platform exhibits significant limitations. The near-space environment features thin air, resulting in severely inadequate lift. To achieve flight, nearly the entire weight of the aircraft must be allocated to wings, solar panels, and batteries, leaving minimal room for payload. This means it cannot carry large radar systems or high-performance optical equipment—only lightweight sensors can be installed. As a result, its reconnaissance range, resolution, and resistance to interference fall far short of conventional medium- and large-sized drones. The platform’s structure is also fragile, making it vulnerable to weather conditions when flying at low altitudes, and prone to deviation under strong high-altitude winds.
Currently, India has only completed short-duration flights of scaled-down prototype versions. Full-scale platforms still face critical bottlenecks in battery efficiency, low-temperature management, and structural strength. In contrast, China started earlier in the field of near-space solar-powered drones, already possessing mature full-scale prototypes, a well-established satellite-based remote sensing network, and a robust fleet of medium-to-large, long-endurance drones—making such pseudo-satellites less urgent for China.
India’s move represents a low-cost workaround amid multiple challenges: failed satellite launches, insufficient revisit rates, and prohibitively high costs of conventional drones. It can only serve as a supplementary tool and cannot replace advanced satellites. More akin to an elevated outpost, it may offer some value in persistent border surveillance, but it cannot fundamentally reverse India’s overall intelligence-gathering disadvantage.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1876298077288460/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.