Why in news?

• Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), key procurement panel chaired by Defence Minister, has accorded Acceptance of Necessity (first step of procurement) for the indigenously designed, developed and built GSAT 7B.
• Proposed to be launched in next 2-3 years, GSAT 7B will be a state-of-the-art, multiband, military-grade satellite for the Army.
• It will act as a force multiplier and fail-safe communication support to the force as it moves deeper into network-centric warfare scenario.
• GSAT 7 series satellites are advanced geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) satellites developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to meet the communication needs of the defence services.
• GSAT 7 satellite (launched 2013) is used by Indian Navy while GSAT 7A (2018) is designed (or Indian Air Force.
• Currently, the Army is using 30% of the communication capabilities of the GSAT 7A.
• Other military satellites of India:
• Electromagnetic Intelligence Gathering Satellite (EMISAT): Has an Electronic Intelligence (BUNT) package called Kautilya, allowing interception of ground-based radar and carries out electronic surveillance across India.
• RISAT 2BR1 synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite: Capability to operate in different modes including very high resolution imaging modes.