NEW DELHI: The Army is chalking out a long-term roadmap to expand its fleet of heavy-duty drones for ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) as well as precision-strike missions, with their sheer operational utility being reinforced by Russia-Ukraine and Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts amid the ongoing shift towards unmanned and autonomous technologies in modern warfare.
The force is basically looking at unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) systems that can operate at ranges beyond 1,000-km for long-range strategic ISR missions, fly at altitudes over 30,000-feet to evade detection, and have an endurance of over 24 hours at a stretch, top sources told TOI on Thursday.
As per estimates, China has well over 2,000 top-notch UAVs, which includes combat drones like Cai Hong-4, CH-5, CH-7, Wing Loong-II and the stealthy Hongdu GJ-11 ‘Sharp Sword’. China is also the world’s largest exporter of military UAVs, and has stepped up supply of the armed CH-4 and Wing Loong-II drones to Pakistan, which in turn has around 150-200 drones, including Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci drones.
Indian Army, in contrast, has only around 50 Israeli-origin Heron Mark-I and Mark-II as well as Searcher-II medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drones. Amid the military standoff with China, the force inducted four new satcom-enabled Heron Mark-II drones to boost surveillance along the Line of Actual Control.
While IAF and Navy have their own UAV fleets, there is an overall requirement of at least 150 new MALE drones for the three Services. Towards this end, Army is focusing on indigenous development of MALE drones by DRDO as well as private sector companies, including through collaboration with friendly countries.
DRDO has developed Rustom series of UAVs, including Tapas-BH-201 drone but it failed to fully meet operational military requirements, as was first reported by TOI. “Efforts are now underway to enhance the capabilities of Tapas,” a source said.
The first flight of Archer-NG, a weaponised MALE drone developed by DRDO, in turn, is expected soon.
In the arena of much more capable high-altitude, long endurance (HALE) drones, the armed forces of course will get 31 armed MQ-9B ‘Predators’ under Rs 32,350 crore contract inked with the US last Oct. The delivery of these drones will begin in 2029.
