Pakistan has significantly enhanced its space-based surveillance capabilities by launching six Earth observation (EO) satellites in the past 18 months. These satellites, often termed spy satellites, can be used to monitor Indian borders, troop movements, and military installations, according to defence experts.
Surge in Satellite Launches
Despite establishing the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in 1961, Pakistan launched its first satellite only in 1990. Over the following decades, fewer than a dozen payloads were launched with foreign assistance. However, between January 2025 and April 2026, Pakistan launched six EO satellites, primarily using Chinese rockets.
List of Satellites Launched
- PAUSAT-1 (Jan 14, 2025) by SpaceX Falcon 9
- PRSC-EO1 (Jan 17, 2025) by China’s Long March-2D
- PRSS-2 EO (July 31, 2025) by a Chinese rocket
- Hyperspectral HS-1 (Oct 19, 2025) by China’s Long March
- PRSC-EO2 (Feb 12, 2026) by China’s Smart Dragon-3
- PRSC-EO3 (April 25, 2026) by China’s Long March-6
Expert Analysis
Group Captain Ajay Ahlawat (retd), a defence analyst, told Times of India, “There is no secret about these satellites as all payload launches are recorded with ITU. We (India) too did not miss it. These EO satellites have been designed to see things in greater detail and have improved Pakistan’s visibility on Indian territory, at least for 3-4 years. On the contrary, India has not been able to launch a single surveillance satellite in the last one year. Our payloads are ready, but the rocketry system is not. After so many recent failures, ISRO is worried and not sure of successful launches.”
He added, “Our NavIC system has also crippled as only three navigation satellites are in space against the requirement of minimum four, forcing our strategic forces to rely on foreign navigation systems like GPS and Glonass for missile navigation.”
Ahlawat suggested that India should launch its critical payloads from friendly space agencies like Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana or Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome until ISRO resolves its rocket issues.
Complementary Surveillance Capabilities
Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai (retd), another defence analyst, noted in his blog, “When EO-3 satellite is passing over South Asia in daylight, PRSC-S1 is passing over the same geography in darkness, and vice versa. Since the optical satellite needs daylight and the SAR satellite does not, the two satellites together provide what neither achieves alone: compressed revisit cycles approaching persistence in operational terms of the South Asian theatre across the full 24-hour cycle.”
India’s Space-Based Surveillance Plans
Pillai further wrote, “India’s space-based Surveillance Phase-III programme — SBS-3 — approved in October 2024 and accelerated after Operation Sindoor, envisages a constellation of 52 surveillance satellites to be deployed over the second half of this decade. The intent is sound, but the sequencing problem is acute: the overhead ISR threat from China’s already dense military satellite network and from this China-enabled Pakistani constellation is operational now, while SBS-3’s first launches are only expected to begin around 2026 and full deployment is generally not projected before 2029.”
