Indian armed forces building deadly drone arsenal,also want combat UAVs

[indian_foxhound]

Armed forces building deadly drone arsenal, also want combat UAVs - The Times of India

Army is planning to induct 16 more Israeli UAVs
under a Rs 12,000 crore contract.


NEW DELHI: With an eye on both
the western and eastern fronts
with Pakistan and China, the
Indian armed forces are slowly
but steadily building a formidable
arsenal of spy, target acquisition and "killer'' drones or UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles). Even as the Navy sets up spy
drone bases along the coastline and IAF inducts "killer'' drones, the Army has
inked yet another contract to acquire two more
"troops'' (eight drones each) of Israeli `Heron'
medium-altitude, long endurance UAVs. "Under the Rs 1,200 crore contract with Israel
Aerospace Industries (IAI), the Army will begin
inducting these new Heron drones from January
2014,'' said a senior defence official. The drones, to be inducted into the new SATA
(surveillance and target acquisition) regiments
being raised, form a part of the overall
modernization plan for the 1.13-million force
being pushed by Army chief General Bikram
Singh. "The force wants speedy induction of various
UAVs, from man-portable micro and mini spy
ones to `killer' ones that act like missiles to hit
targets. It will bolster capabilities for surveillance,
weapon delivery and direction of artillery fire,''
said an officer. In keeping with the plan to progressively induct
drones right down to the battalion-level by the
end of this decade, the Army is already
establishing new UAV bases from Nagrota and
Manasbal in J&K to Kumbhigram and Lilabari in
the north-east. The Navy, in turn, is looking to raise new UAV
squadrons after establishing three at Kochi
(Kerala), Porbandar (Gujarat) and Uchipuli (Tamil
Nadu) to detect threats emanating from the sea. Similarly, IAF is inducting additional Harop
``killer'' drones equipped with electro-optical
sensors to loiter over high-value military targets
before exploding into them. The force has also
experimented with "add-ons or attachments'' to
its existing fleet of Israeli Heron and Searcher-II surveillance drones to add a killer role to them. The armed forces eventually want full-fledged
UCAVs (combat UAVs) - akin to the American
Predators and Reapers being used in the Af-Pak
region - which return to their bases like fighter
jets to replenish their missiles for fresh missions. They have inducted over 100 UAVs, mainly from
Israel, as "major force-multipliers'' since the 1999
Kargil conflict. DRDO, too, has got into the act by
stepping up its drone programmes, from the
already inducted Nishant to the under-
development Rustom-I and II drones. As earlier reported by TOI, DRDO has also
launched the secretive AURA (autonomous
unmanned research aircraft) programme to
develop stealth UCAVs capable of firing missiles,
bombs and precision-guided munitions. Similarly, another ambitious project on the
drawing board focuses on designing solar-
powered high-altitude, long endurance UAVs
that can cruise in the sky for several days at a
time for round-the-clock ISTAR (intelligence,
surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) missions.