India-Pakistan: August 18, 2000

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India complains that Pakistani UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, i.e., recon drones) are sweeping the Line of Control in Pakistan looking for gaps so that 2,000 armed and trained insurgents can cross the border and join existing insurgent groups. The Indian military has UAVs, but these cannot fly above 11,000 feet; requests for new ones have yet to be approved by the government. India has previously launched two spy satellites with a photographic resolution of 36m (useless to spot anything smaller than a gunboat) and two more with a resolution of 5m (good enough to spot moving trucks and parked heavy weapons). The new Test Evaluation Satellite will be launched early next year; it will have a resolution of 1m.--Stephen V Cole