Dedicated navy, air force satellites by 2014

New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) India's navy and air force will have dedicated communication satellites between 2012 and 2014, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told parliament Monday.

In written replies to questions, Antony said the naval satellite is planned to be launched in 2012-13, while the air force communication satellite is planned to be launched in 2013-14.

He also said that the tri-services defence communication network (DCN) is being progressed as per the defence procurement procedure.

The DCN envisages a network of optical fibre cables, satellite, earth stations and transportable and portable satellite terminals with high security features.

The design for these systems have features that enable conduct of simultaneous real- time networked operations from multiple sites to cater for contingencies and failures, as well as hardware redundancies for fail-safe operations