Pakistan has had access to Chinese military-grade positioning signals—the kind that guide missiles and coordinate troop movements—since 2018. It was the first country outside China to receive them. India, meanwhile, faces several challenges in maintaining the full operational capacity of NavIC, its own navigation satellite system. NavIC is now down to three functioning satellites, below the minimum of four needed for accurate positioning.
This creates a paradox. India possesses a strategic capability that it cannot rely on consistently, while its adversaries have access to a more reliable navigation system. However, this crisis is recoverable if India treats its navigation constellation as national infrastructure, on par with its power grid or rail network.