Recent Developments

Indian Armed Forces are looking at procurement of 30 x HALEs, may be in a phased manner to meet the strategic requirements, while efforts are on to build an indigenous pseudo satellite for the same.

Under the Make-II category of acquisition, the Indian Army has granted an Approval In-Principle (AIP) for Integrated Drone Detection and Interdictions System, a feasibility is underway for Autonomous – Surveillance And Armed Drone Swarm (Desert/plains) {A-SADS(desert/ plains) and Autonomous – Surveillance And Armed Drone Swarm High Altitude Area {A-SADS (HAA)}. Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) has been granted for 35 Drone Kill Systems worth INR 78.36 crore for Indian Army in 2021 under Make-II.

Naval Ship Borne Unmanned Aerial System (NSUAS) and HALE UAV have been identified under Make-I and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) model for development respectively.

In August 2022, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) issued a tender to procure two (2) mini drones with Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

Military Applications of UAVs.

Some of the important uses include:

•  Information, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR).

•  Unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV).

•  Radar and Communication Relay.

•  Mapping Military Logistics.

•  Nuclear Cloud Surveillance.

Armed Drones. ADE has completed the development of the Rustom-2 TAPAS (Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance) MALE UAV (a MQ-1 category drone). HAL will soon start the production of first five units of TAPAS drones.

In total 76 units of this UAV will be ordered by forces. There will be 60 drones for Indian Army, 12 for the Indian Air Force and 4 for the Indian Navy.

Drone Technology

What information technology was in the 90s, drone technology is today. Technologies that the nation needs to invest in, are:

• Powertrain Technology – Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) Motor.

• Powertrain Technology – Fuel-Run Motor

• Powertrain Technology – Electronics

• Flight Controller

• Battery Technology

• Datalink Technology

• Making Bandwidth Available For Civilian Use

Some emerging technologies have the potential to enhancing effectiveness of drones, viz,

(a)  Artificial Intelligence.

(b)  Internet of Things (IoT).

Indian Air Force

A Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) is a planned unmanned and manned combat aircraft air teaming system being developed by HAL, which is of interest to the IAF. An armed stealth drone will team up and fight alongside IAF fighters to hit high-value enemy targets. It is designed to carry out MUM-T Operations.

The Unmanned Wingman will be connected to a heavily upgraded IAF Jaguar fighter bomber.

HAL is designing & developing AI powered, stealthy autonomous swarm drones known as ALFA-S

DRDO is developing the Ghatak which is an UCAV for the IAF. The Aura UCAV will be a tactical stealth aircraft capable of delivering laser-guided strike weapons.

Indian Army

The army’s existing unmanned systems’ fleet comprises Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs, and the smaller Searcher Mark II tactical drones.

The Army plans to buy high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to strengthen its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and improve the effectiveness of its military operations.

Indian Navy

The Indian Navy currently operates Israeli-origin Heron and Searcher Mk-II UAVs, but neither is shipborne. It also has Sea Guardian drones on lease.

The Indian Navy announced its plans, in June 2022, to acquire 40 Naval Unmanned Aerial Systems (NUAS) for more than 100 meters long warships.

Research & Development

DRDO tested, in early-July 2022, the Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator, which is a major step ahead of developing unmanned aerial combat vehicles (UCAV), primarily for the Indian Air Force.

Countering Drones

Drones are hard to detect, do not have a significant visual, radar, infra-red or noise signature, and require minimal infrastructure to launch and control. Drones are best countered by effective jamming and laser systems.

DRDO’s D-4 anti-drone system can provide both “soft kill” (jamming of hostile drones) and “hard kill” (a laser-based destruction method) options to the military to tackle fast-emerging aerial threats. It has been used for VIP protection on National Days’ events.

Adani Defence & Aerospace has linked with DRDO and Israel’s Elbit Systems to begin deploying counter-UAS equipment in some of the country’s major airports.

UAV Industry

The union government made a serious paradigm shift in the drone industry by announcing ‘Drone Shakti’ in Budget 2022. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasized that the initiative will also help establish Drones-As-A-Service. With ‘drone as a service’ the government says start-ups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through various use cases and applications.

According to the Civil Aviation Minister, by 2026, the Indian drone industry will achieve a turnover of over Rs 15,000 crore. India is home to 270 startups in the drone technologies business. He has stated that the country will be a global leader in drones by 2030.

The government announced the Production-Linked Incentive scheme on 16 Sep 2021 which provides for funding 20 per cent of the “value addition” made by the company during the next three years.

By 2025, India is forecasted to be the world’s third-largest drone market. The Government of India is planning to make India a Global Drone Hub by 2030, and expects total turnover of the drone manufacturing industry to increase from ₹ 60-80 crore to ₹ 900 crore by FY 2024.

The post Event Preview—Unmanned Aerial Systems India 2023 appeared first on IMR.

Nature of Warfare

Over the past few decades, there have been many prophecies about how drones will transform the nature of warfare and how “drone swarms” could overwhelm enemies in combat. While there is no doubt that unmanned warfare is evolving fast, the “era of the drone” is yet to arrive because countries that use them often do not deploy enough of them, or are afraid to lose them in battle. Despite widespread employment, drones did not stop the Taliban in Afghanistan.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it put a renewed spotlight on the use of armed drones in conventional wars. The world saw how armed drones might work when both countries have them — and both have air defences that can shoot them down.

Turkish Bayraktar drones showed they can change the “nature of warfare” in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But contemplating air war based on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or the Ukraine-Russia war needs closer analysis. In the latter, the success of the Bayraktar was unclear. Even kamikaze drones did not turn the tide in Ukraine. The limits of drone warfare appeared to be on display.

Any air war, more so in the context of the subcontinent, would involve an entire array of aerial operations and combat air support campaigns. To counter drones, the capabilities of the enemy drone assets need evaluation before countering them through anti-drone measures and other means.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

The stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China has accelerated the acquisition of more drones. Impressed with the performance of the two leased Sea Guardian drones, the Navy, Army and the Air Force are considering procurement of combat drones.

Military Applications of UAVs.

Some of the important uses include:

• Information, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR).
• Unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV).
• Radar and Communication Relay.
• Mapping Military Logistics.
• Nuclear Cloud Surveillance.

Armed Drones. ADE has completed the development of the Rustom-2 TAPAS (Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance) MALE UAV (a MQ-1 category drone). Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will soon start the production of first five units of TAPAS drones. The optimally armed drone has already met all its revised qualitative requirements. It can fly at an altitude of 28,000 feet and has an endurance of 18 hours.

In total 76 units of this UAV will be ordered by forces. There will be 60 drones for Indian Army, 12 for the Indian Air Force and 4 for the Indian Navy.

Drone Technology

What information technology was in the 90s, drone technology is today. Technologies that the nation needs to invest in, are:

• Powertrain Technology – Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) Motor.
• Powertrain Technology – Fuel-Run Motor
• Powertrain Technology – Electronics
• Flight Controller
• Battery Technology
• Datalink Technology
• Making Bandwidth Available For Civilian Use

Some emerging technologies have the potential to enhancing effectiveness of drones, viz,

Artificial Intelligence. AI can help machines perceive and learn from Big Data to mimic and improve upon human cognitive functions like learning and problem solving.

Internet of Things (IoT). A network of connected devices, robots and instruments, embedded with sensors can communicate with other objects to         exchange data and information over the internet. Drones can act as first responders to an accident site and transmit real-time information to rescue agencies.

Indian Air Force

A Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) is a planned unmanned and manned combat aircraft air teaming system being developed by HAL, which is of interest to the IAF. An armed stealth drone will team up and fight alongside IAF fighters to hit high-value enemy targets. It is designed to carry out MUM-T Operations.

The Unmanned Wingman will be connected to a heavily upgraded IAF Jaguar fighter bomber; pilots onboard which will assign specific tasks to each of the unmanned drones which fly alongside the fighter. The drone will also operate with other platforms.

HAL is designing & developing AI powered, stealthy autonomous swarm drones known as ALFA-S. Sheer numbers of the swarm would overwhelm enemy defences such as surface-to-air missile units to ensure a high probability of mission success. The drones are meant to be launched from any Indian Air Force aircraft – fighter jets and transports.

DRDO is developing the Ghatak which is an UCAV for the IAF. The Aura UCAV will be a tactical stealth aircraft capable of delivering laser-guided strike weapons.

Indian Army

The army’s existing unmanned systems’ fleet comprises Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs, and the smaller Searcher Mark II tactical drones.

The Army plans to buy high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to strengthen its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and improve the effectiveness of its military operations.

Indian Navy

The Indian Navy currently operates Israeli-origin Heron and Searcher Mk-II UAVs, but neither is shipborne. It also has Sea Guardian drones on lease.

The Indian Navy announced its plans, in June 2022, to acquire 40 Naval Unmanned Aerial Systems (NUAS) for more than 100 meters long warships. The NUAS would be used for surveillance activities, including signals intelligence (SIGINT), target acquisition, surveillance, and maritime domain awareness surrounding a naval task forc as well as Search-and-Rescue (SAR), anti-piracy, and anti-terrorist operations.

The Indian Navy once partially funded a joint effort by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to convert the Chetak helicopter into an autonomous drone platform due to its need for the capabilities over time. The project, named naval rotary UAV (NRUAV), failed due to technological difficulties.

Research & Development

DRDO tested, in early-July 2022, the Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator, which is a major step ahead of developing unmanned aerial combat vehicles (UCAV), primarily for the Indian Air Force. A deck launched version for the Indian Navy is also said to be in the pipeline. The UCAV will be capable of launching missiles and precision-guided munitions.

Countering Drones

Drones are hard to detect, do not have a significant visual, radar, infra-red or noise signature, and require minimal infrastructure to launch and control. Drones are best countered by effective jamming and laser systems.

DRDO’s D-4 anti-drone system can provide both “soft kill” (jamming of hostile drones) and “hard kill” (a laser-based destruction method) options to the military to tackle fast-emerging aerial threats. It has been used for VIP protection on National Days’ events.

Adani Defence & Aerospace has linked with DRDO and Israel’s Elbit Systems to begin deploying counter-UAS equipment in some of the country’s major airports.

UAV Industry

According to the Civil Aviation Minister, by 2026, the Indian drone industry will achieve a turnover of over Rs 15,000 crore. India is home to 270 startups in the drone technologies business. He has stated that the country will be a global leader in drones by 2030.

PLI Scheme. The government announced the Production-Linked Incentive scheme on 16 Sep 2021 which provides for funding 20 per cent of the “value addition” made by the company during the next three years. The value addition is calculated as the annual sales revenue from drones and drone components. 14 drone companies have already been selected as beneficiaries.

Joint Ventures. The first private UAV manufacturing complex has been set up at Adani Aerospace Park in Hyderabad to assemble unmanned aerial platforms including manufacturing of Hermes 900 Unmanned Aerial Platforms and marketing it to international customers.

Training

Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) signed a MoU, in July 2022, with a private drone service provider and training organisation, to set up a ‘Remote Pilot Training Centre’ (RPTC) to teach drone flying to defence/security forces personnel as well as citizens on a private partnership model near Gandhinagar. The RPTC will have DGCA certified drone trainers teaching the trainees regarding quadcopters with strict adherence to certification necessities.

The post EVENTS – Curtain Raiser on UAS India 2022 appeared first on IMR.

Although the Narendra Modi government on February 9 banned the import of drones, acquisition of unmanned aerial vehicles for defence and security purposes are exempt, but still require special and specific clearances. “As of now, the Predator deal is off,” said a top South Block official who asked not to be named.

Spearheaded by the Indian Navy, India was planning to acquire 30 Predator armed drones for use across services (10 each for the navy, air force and army) at the cost of at least $3 billion from US-based General Atomics. The Indian Navy already has taken two surveillance Predators on lease from the US company and uses them for conducting reconnaissance of India’s maritime and land borders with China and Pakistan.

The decision to put the acquisition on hold was taken as India already has some capability in armed drones; it is currently upgrading the Israeli Heron drones. The Predator platform with armed payload, as in missiles and laser-guided bombs, costs nearly $100 million apiece, but the platform has an endurance of nearly 27 hours.

The Indian Navy uses it for maritime domain awareness from Gulf of Aden to Sunda Straits in Indonesia.

While the Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is expected to unveil its medium altitude long endurance (MALE) drone latest by March, the country’s national security planners are looking at futuristic high altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) technology for surveillance and targeting capability.

India has already demonstrated its capacity and capability for the manufacture of swarm drones, as was showcased in the Beating Retreat ceremony this year.

Besides DRDO, private Indian companies are also involved in the development of drones that are cheaper to operate compared to the Predator and pack similar lethality.

While the Indian Navy and Army have significant use for the drones for domain awareness, the Indian Air Force was sceptical of Predators due to congested air space, and the presence of surface to air missiles and radars in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The Air Force is in favour of purchasing more fighter aircraft.

The post Plan to buy Predator drones put on hold appeared first on IMR.

Project Cheetah

The unmanned aerial project – code-named Project Cheetah – is for arming Heron UAVs with laser-guided bombs, precision-guided munitions and anti-tank missiles. Project Cheetah has been pending for a long time and now the three Services have decided to revive it. It is likely to cost the exchequer over Rs 3,500 crore. The armed forces have pressed for equipping 60-90 drones with stronger surveillance and reconnaissance payloads to keep an eye on the enemy and take them out if and when needed. The Air Force will have join hands with the Israel defence major Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) for the modifications.

The upgrades would also enable the IAF ground station handlers to operate these aircraft from far-off distances and control them through satellite communication system.

The decision to revive the ‘Project Cheetah’ has been taken in view of the recent border standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control (LoAC) in eastern Ladakh.

The upgraded UAVs can be used against conventional military operations as well as in counter-terrorism operations in future, if required. With such a capability in its fold, in future scenario if the Army units inform about any particular launch pad of terrorists getting active, the Indian Air Force (IAF) can deploy its armed drones to unleash a silent punishment to terrorists from 30,000 feet over the ground.

With the upgrade in reconnaissance capabilities, the forces on the ground would also be able to get pin-point intelligence about hideouts in areas where men have to be involved in operations.

The upgrades would also enable the Armed forces’ ground station handlers to operate these aircraft from far-off distances and control them through the satellite communication system. The precision guided missiles would also help in specific elimination of desired targets and there would be none or minimum collateral damage in such operations.

After silently hovering over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) over suspected launch pads for some time gathering accurate intelligence the drones can launch an attack and return to the base causing greater damage than what the troops can do.

For turning their surveillance drones into killer vehicles, the IAF has taken a cue from the United States. For the Americans, drones are the weapons of choice for taking out terrorist leaders or destroying their safe houses. The Americans regularly smoke out terrorists using their MQ-1 Predators and Global Hawk as it has killed several more than 2,500 terrorist leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan alone during its war on terror in these countries.

Current Holding

The Indian armed forces, so far, do not have drones which can fire ammunition from air. However, they do have “kamikaze drones” – Harop — which can hover over a target. On command from a ground-based controller, they can self-implode on the target.

The Heron drones with the IAF and Army have high-resolution surveillance cameras and electronic signal tracking systems, but their operating system will have to be modified for hitting targets.

The current holding of medium and high-altitude UAVs is as follows:

Heron          68
Searcher Mk 2   108
Harop (Harpy 2)                10
Nishant                 12

The cost of each imported bird varies from Rs 48 to 80 crores. Nishant is believed to cost about Rs 20 crore. In comparison the Tejas LCA Mk 1 cost Rs 445 crore and a Su-30MKI costs about Rs 360 crore.

The cost of an drone modified to fire missiles is likely to be over Rs 100 crore each.

DRDO’s Efforts

The Defence Research & Devlopment Organisation (DRDO) is currently developing the Rustom-1 (12 hours endurance), Rustom-H (24 hours endurance) and Rustom-2 (TAPAS 201) (48 hours endurance) drone. For Rustom-2 nearly Rs 1500 crore have been spent so far. It is now intended to involve the private sector with its development.

Rustom-2 has received additional funding and is being developed for intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance (ISR) roles with medium and long-range electro-optics, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), ELINT, COMINT payloads to provide situational awareness.

DRDO is also developing the 15-ton Aura UAV as a combat drone.

The main private players in this field are Larsen & Toubro, Tata Defence & Aerospace, Mahindra Defence, Bharat Forge, Data Patterns, Alpha Design, Dynamatic Technologies, Adani-Elbit JV, Asteria Aerospace and Alpha Design & Technologies.

In February this year, drones’ manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) had announced a strategic partnership with public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Dynamatic Technologies Limited (DTL) to jointly manufacture Heron Mk II drones. These are the armed variety. The ones India is looking to upgrade could possibly be done through the same partnership.

Challenges

Combat drone are expected to be autonomous with the ability to find, fix, track, engage and kill targets. For this they need to have the right propulsion, avionics, navigation systems, sensors and payloads. For medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAVs engines of the Wenkel type (20-100 hp) and for the high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAVs, turbofan or turboprop engines (250-1000 hp) are required.

Designers, developers and manufacturers have to overcome challenges related to composites, aerodynamics, communication systems, embedded software, weapon systems, control mechanisms and so on.

Technology gaps that exist in India are to do with electro-optics (thermal cameras, FLIR), propulsion motors, high density Lithium batteries required for robotic systems, and so on.

Comments

The Chinese are arming Pakistan and their friends in the Middle-East with Wing Loong-1 and-2 armed UAVs, many of which are copies of American armed UAVs.

According to a January 2020 report by SIPRI, China is the second largest arms producer and its exports are helped by major sales of combat drones. China is today the third largest exporter of multi-role strike drones after Israel and USA.

The Chinese have sold armed drones to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Turkmenistan and Zambia.

USA used Predator and Reaper drones to good effect in its war against terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. It accounted for over 2,500 terrorists killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The UAE has used Chinese Wing Loong-1 drones in Yemen and Libya. Turkey has used its own armed drones in Libya and against the Kurds. Yemeni Houthi rebels used the Qasef-1 kamikaze drones and the UAV-X (Samad-2/3) drones along with Iranian Quds cruise missiles to attack Aramco Oil refinery in Saudi Arabia on 14 September 2019.

The surprise sprung by Pakistan in Kargil in 1999 was a wake-up call. By the time the armed forces were deployed for Operation Parakram in 2001, Searcher UAVs had been acquired from Israel. The usefulness of UAVs was proved in the aftermath of the Uri and Pulwama attacks by terrorists launched from Pakistan. The Chinese intrusion in Eastern Ladakh in 2020 has closed the argument for procuring combat UAVs.

The post Project Cheetah to Arm Heron and Searcher Drones Revived appeared first on IMR.