“Pakistan, by purchasing these armed UAVs from Turkey, wants to keep the dream of acquiring India’s Jammu-Kashmir relevant,” said NK Sood, a former officer of India’s premier external intelligence agency, RAW (Research & Analysis Wing).

“It is strange that on the one hand, Pakistan is begging before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loans to restore its economy but on the other hand making a major deal with Turkey for Akinci drones,” Sood told EurAsian Times.

Recently Pakistan Air Force (PAF) designed a shiny patch for its combat pilots who had received training on Akinci drones in Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar. The patch shows India’s Jammu & Kashmir as Pakistan territory.

This patch will be worn by the pilots operating these Akinci combat drones. Pakistan is believed to have received the first batch of 6-7 Bayraktar Akinci drones. However, no official announcement has been made by Turkey or Pakistan.

Akinci patch of PAF is inspired by the TV series Game of Thrones and has Games of Drones written on it along with House of Akinci. The patch also quotes, “Fear cuts deeper than swords.”

The possible acquisition of Turkish drones comes at a time when the South Asian country is witnessing feuds even over the distribution of daily items like flour. But these drones are also a cause of worry for neighboring India, which is already seething under large-scale smuggling of narcotics drugs & weapons from the Pakistan border via drones.

Bayraktar Akinci is a high-altitude long-endurance drone that can be armed with ammunition. Akinci is the Turkish word for ‘raider.’ The drone can fire various missiles, both air-to-air and air-to-ground.

Bayraktar Akinci, designed and developed by the Turkish company Baykar, was first tested in 2019. The mass production of the combat drone began in 2021 and entered the Turkish armed forces in the same year.

The Turkish combat drone is a strategic class platform that can carry various payloads. As per the company’s claim, the Akinci is “capable of conducting operations that are performed with fighter jets.”

“Bayraktar Akinci is equipped with dual artificial intelligence avionics which supports signal processing, sensor fusion, and situational awareness in real-time. It carries electronic support systems, dual satellite communication systems, air-to-air radar, collision avoidance radar, and synthetic aperture radar,” reads the specifications of Akinci drones by the Turkish company.

Akinci is 12.2m in length and 4.1m in height and can carry a maximum weight of 6000 kilograms, including a payload of 1500 kilograms. As claimed by Bayraktar, the drone has a wingspan of 20m and can fly at a height of 40 thousand feet.

Pakistan, Azerbaijan, and many other nations friendly to Turkey already operate Bayraktar TB2 tactical armed drones. Azerbaijan used these TB2 drones against Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.

These Turkish drones, along with those procured from Israel, were believed to be the primary reason for the victory of Azerbaijan against Armenia. Ukraine has also operated Turkish TB2 drones in the ongoing war with Russia.

But what has caught everyone’s eye now is the Pakistani deal for much coveted Turkish combat drones. Largely because Pakistan’s economy is in tatters these days. Pakistan was in talks with the IMF for loans, but those have been stalled.

Pakistan recently came out of the gray list of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) but cannot get loans from international funding agencies. This has led Pakistani shopkeepers to sell flour in black. People can be seen in long queues for daily used items.

There have been reports of stampedes and deaths of women and children during the flour distribution system. On Sunday, the petrol prices were increased by Rs 10, taking the price to Rs 282 per liter. Pakistan is reeling under intense inflation.

Such has been a scarcity of essential goods that Pakistan had to plead with its all-weather friend, China, for supplies of essential commodities. At Pakistan’s request, China had to open the Integrated Check Posts of the icy Karakoram Pass for the supply of goods much before their scheduled openings in April.

According to Sood, although Pakistan has no external threat from India but wants to use this bogey to acquire these Turkish drones. As is evident, India has never invaded or attacked Pakistan. All the wars (’47-48, ’65 & ’71) which both the South Asian neighboring adversaries have fought were started by Pakistan.

While speaking to EurAsian Times, Sood quoted erstwhile Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who had said that his country (Pakistan) “could eat grass but would still make nuclear bombs.”

But Sood said that now Pakistan would not even get grass for its donkeys, referring to the large-scale flood which had erupted in large parts of the country last year, leading to the destruction of crops, which has aggravated economic turmoil.

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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.

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