The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will go shopping for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) at the Aero India Show set begin from February 6 in Bangalore.
A few days ago the CRPF had written to the home ministry expressing its desire to own a UAV for Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.
"There are certain operational problems. Whenever we want to use the UAVs, we have to depend on the IAF personnel who have never been in the jungles. They don't know the terrain. We have to depend on their expertise. We want to take control of these added advantages," said a senior officer.
Officials said they will be travelling to Bangalore to find out a suitable vendor who can either sell or provide them UAVs . The money spent for this purpose would be used from the modernisation fund allotted to the DG by the MHA.
Recently after the Latehar encounter, the force wanted to use UAVs to find the exact location of Maoist leader Arvind Ji.
The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), which operates UAVs from its base, reportedly declined the CRPF request for help saying it was "too far".
The UAVs with NTRO are operated by IAF personnel on deputation.
