Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for India

[RPK]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for India » Indian Defence Review

With the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security clearing a deal for 15 additional IAI-Malat Heron-I Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), the MoD is likely to sign a contract with Israel soon, making India the largest operator of the type. With over 40 already in service with the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy, and the Army looking to contract an unspecified number of longer-range variants of the Heron in the future, the numbers are on a steady upswing and not without reason. With the 40-odd airframes already in service undergoing endurance and sensor upgrade, the Heron-I, having proven to be a deeply useful tri-service platform, has enmeshed well with Indian backbone technologies across the spectrum. IAI-Malat will, at Defexpo 2014, also pitch the long-range Heron TP drone for possible consideration as a loitering platform for extended border airborne surveillance and patrolling in the Northern and Western sectors. The Army currently operates Searcher Mk 2 drones but is on the lookout for higher performance systems given the increasing demands on unmanned surveillance.

 

[Tshering22]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for India » Indian Defence Review

With the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security clearing a deal for 15 additional IAI-Malat Heron-I Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), the MoD is likely to sign a contract with Israel soon, making India the largest operator of the type. With over 40 already in service with the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy, and the Army looking to contract an unspecified number of longer-range variants of the Heron in the future, the numbers are on a steady upswing and not without reason. With the 40-odd airframes already in service undergoing endurance and sensor upgrade, the Heron-I, having proven to be a deeply useful tri-service platform, has enmeshed well with Indian backbone technologies across the spectrum. IAI-Malat will, at Defexpo 2014, also pitch the long-range Heron TP drone for possible consideration as a loitering platform for extended border airborne surveillance and patrolling in the Northern and Western sectors. The Army currently operates Searcher Mk 2 drones but is on the lookout for higher performance systems given the increasing demands on unmanned surveillance.

I really think we should move beyond importing and more into JV with Israelis. We have bought so much from them that they won't mind helping us out on this.

 

[sancho]

I really think we should move beyond importing and more into JV with Israelis. We have bought so much from them that they won't mind helping us out on this.

This is only a follow order of drones we already use and sadly the problem for the JV / co-developments is not Israel but us! They had formed the unmanned helicopter development, which we didn't showed much interest, they are proposing a joint development for the IN drone requirement and if we would be smart, we would form a co-development for a HALE drone comparable to the Global Hawk, with the Kaveri engine, which actually could provide us with the base techs for the AURA UCAV too. But as often, we think we can do it alone and that's why we see DRDO pressing on these developments on their own.
On the other side we see TATA and other private players entering that field, not to mention that HAL wants to join the party with a foreign partner too. So we have the requirement, we have the players, we only must take our chances in a logical way.