IRNSS – India’s Strategic Guardian Of The Sky

On 11 May 1998, India surprised the world with its Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) nuclear test, which was completely hidden from US spy satellites. This was a feat as the US spy satellites are capable of taking even a snap of wristwatch of Indian soldiers. When India felt the importance of secrecy and to avoid being detected by other countries, it integrated the 58th Engineer Regiment with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation); the objective was to camouflage the nuclear test site.
The extensive and intelligent work of a very small group of Indian scientists helped to prevent the detection of test sites from orbiting satellites of several countries. This was done by calculating their movement, visibility and organising the movements of materials accordingly.  Notably, they remained undetected even in the desert regions of Rajasthan. From the analysis of information about the orbiting satellite movement provided by scientists, the Indian Army moved the objects and prepare...