Context: The India-US 2+2 (foreign and defence) ministerial meeting to be held in New Delhi is going to explore the India-US foundational agreements, including BECA.
US India Major Agreements
General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA): First foundational agreement with India in 2002.
Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA)
Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA)
Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA): It will allow the countries to share geospatial data and imagery to identify the military hardware of their adversaries.
Benefits:
India can utilise data from US’s geospatial intelligence-gathering satellites.
Precise weather forecasting for India’s cities is vital for disaster management.
Drawbacks of BECA:
Over-focus on geolocating adversarial hardware: will prove to be limiting due to entry of weapons of fourth-generation warfare and technological challenges into cyber and electronic realms.
Neglects the likelihood of weather warfare: When extended to military operations, deliberate electromagnetic interference can be considered an act of electronic warfare.
Neglects the criticality of meteorological intelligence:
In daily weather- monitoring and disaster management, it can become an act of criminal and economic negligence.
Issues of interference with the 5G networks: 5G networks working at 24Ghz frequency might interfere with the weather monitoring instruments.
Apprehensions raised by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) about the clash of the telecom and meteorological technologies.
Way Ahead:
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India must study the impact of 5G transmission on the 24-GHz band on localised urban weather monitoring.
Ministry of Earth Sciences and the department of space can collaborate with NOAA and Nasa, respectively to analyse meteorological data of those US cities that have implemented 24-GHz 5G.
Sharing of data:
Microwave Analysis and Detection of Rain and Atmospheric Structures (MADRAS): India can share data from the precipitation-measuring instrument on board the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Megha-Tropiques weather monitoring satellite.
Advanced Microwave Imager: The US can employ its counterpart on board its Joint Altimetry Satellite Oceanography Network-3 satellite.