India and Pakistan’s 79-year rivalry has made the dangerous move into space

When India and Pakistan fought a four-day war in May 2025, the decisive contest wasn't in the air — it unfolded in orbit. Per The Conversation, satellites shaped that conflict decisively, fusing imagery, navigation, and real-time communications into systems neither nation had previously coordinated at this scale. Pakistan's smaller military executed a tightly networked strategy; India drew on commercial imagery from US satellite company Maxar Technologies. Pakistan leaned on Chinese systems, including the BeiDou navigation network. Now India is responding with a three-point-two billion dollar programme to launch fifty-two dedicated military satellites. But the deeper danger isn't a battle in orbit — it's the compression of decision-making. When commanders can track an adversary almost in real time and strike within minutes, the pressure to move first becomes intense. And unlike the Cold War, there is no rule book. The Outer Space Treaty bans weapons of mass destruction in orbit but leaves unregulated the conventional, cyber, and electronic systems that shaped this war.

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