Army lays groundwork for 120 high-tech drones
NEWDELHI: SUCH HALE UAVS CAN FLY AT ALTITUDES OF OVER 60,000 FEET AND REMAIN AIRBORNE FOR OVER 30 HOURS
The army is planning to buy high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to strengthen its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and improve the effectiveness of military operations.
The force is laying the groundwork for acquiring more than 120 high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAVs, a senior officer told HT. Such UAVs can fly at over 60,000 feet and remain airborne for over 30 hours.
The army’s existing unmanned systems’ fleet consists of Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs and the smaller Searcher Mark II tactical drones, both built by Israel Aerospace Industries. The Herons can fly at over 35,000 feet and feed airborne intelligence for over 45 hours, compared to Searchers that operate at 15,000 feet for nearly 20 hours.
“The higher you go, the more you see,” said Lieutenant General Subrata Saha (retd), who was the army’s deputy chief till March 2017. “The precision afforded by HALE UAVs comes with top-end technology that can be quite expensive,” he said.
The army is also waiting for local vendors to respond to a request for information (RFI) for short-range remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) that can operate for 10 hours at 15,000 feet. The army needs 60 RPAS for combat units in the northern and western borders. The vendors have to respond by December 28.
India is in talks with the United States for the possible sale of 22 Guardian UAVs at a cost of $2 billion. An RFI for the UAVs, a naval variant of Predator B drones, was issued to the US Office of Defence Cooperation on November 14.
Talks on the UAVs, manufactured by US’ General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, progressed only after India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime in 2016.
The Indian Air Force has projected a requirement of over 100 US-made Avenger- (previously Predator C) armed UAVs. India does not have weaponised drones at the moment.
Future UAV technologies being eyed by the army include ‘close-in covert autonomous disposable aircraft’ (CICADA), a mini drone deployed in swarms.
The CICADA swarm is dropped from an aircraft and guided to within 4.5 metre of its target by an on-board GPS, says a December 2016 army report on future core technologies.