Technical intelligence — the collection and analysis of electromagnetic emissions, including radar signals, communication intercepts, and telemetry from weapons systems — provides military commanders with insights into adversary capabilities and intentions that no other intelligence source can match. India's signals intelligence and electronic intelligence programmes have matured considerably over the past two decades, incorporating ground-based collection stations, airborne platforms, and increasingly space-based sensors. The Bharat Defence Tech Show has provided a carefully calibrated discussion of this sensitive domain, drawing on the expertise of advisory board members with direct signals intelligence experience.
Rear Admiral Mohit Gupta's work as the founding Director General of India's Defence Cyber Agency included the integration of cyber intelligence — the collection of intelligence through cyber means — with traditional signals intelligence methods. At BDTS, he has shared insights on the convergence of SIGINT and cyber intelligence that is transforming how India's defence intelligence community understands adversary military networks, command structures, and operational plans.
India's airborne SIGINT capability, built around a small number of specialist aircraft operated by the Aviation Research Centre and the armed forces' technical intelligence units, provides the ability to collect adversary electromagnetic emissions from positions that ground stations cannot reach. The acquisition of additional airborne SIGINT platforms and the development of indigenous SIGINT processing and analysis software have been discussed at BDTS as priority capability investments.
Space-based SIGINT, which allows the collection of adversary electromagnetic emissions from orbit without the political complications of airborne collection in contested airspace, has been highlighted at BDTS as a domain where India's growing commercial satellite industry could make defence contributions. The development of SIGINT payloads for small satellite platforms represents an area where the ISRO ecosystem and defence intelligence requirements intersect in commercially interesting ways.
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