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“The Drone Jammer (Manportable) will be capable of detection and jamming of all types of drones and quadcopters in field conditions. The system will comprise of radio frequency (RF) and other requisite sensors to achieve target detection and engagement,” a request for proposal (RFP) issued by the Ministry of Defence on January 20 states.

The system will be effective against drones by jamming control, communication uplink as well as downlink, data and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) links. “The inputs of all sensors should be amalgamated through a C2 (command and control) system to facilitate efficient operation of the system,” the RFP further states.

The Army’s requirement is for systems that have a range of at least 5 km for target identification and acquisition and a range of 2 km or above for executing jamming counter measures against hostile drones.

These should also be suitable for varied terrain and climatic conditions, including high altitude areas with extremely cold weather, having an operating temperature range from minus 10 degree Celsius to 45 degree Celsius.

Defining specifications for electronic countermeasures, the RFP states that it should be possible to engage drones in the frequencies 100 MHz to 6 GHz or better. “The System should be able to simultaneously jam GNSS (BeiDou, GPS, GLONASS and IRNSS), command and control data and telemetry links of the target drones,” it adds. The system would have a threat library of all known drones’ signatures, which would be updated regularly.

The RFP for man-portable jammers comes close on the heels of another RFP floated on January 18 for the procurement of 20 vehicle mounted drone jammers capable of detecting, tracking and neutralising drones or drone swarms from multiple directions simultaneously over longer ranges.

Several types of anti-drone systems are being used by the armed forces as well as border guarding forces to counter drones. Extensive research and development is also being undertaken in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles as well as counter drone measures by government as well as private agencies.

Drones of various sizes as well as capabilities are being deployed for surveillance, reconnaissance, offensive operations as well as for logistic support in remote areas. These are also being increasingly used for nefarious activities like cross-border smuggling of narcotics, weapons and fake currency.

In 2022, the Border Security Force (BSF) reported a three-fold increase in drone activities over the previous year along the western border with Pakistan that runs through the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The number of drone activities went up from 100 in 2021 to 304 in 2022.

This year there have already been several incidents of drones being spotted or shot down in the vicinity of the International Border in Punjab, with weapons and narcotics being seized by the BSF.

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The first rendering of the twin-engined Omni Role Combat Aircraft (ORCA), sometimes called the Medium Combat Aircraft, was revealed by Harsh Vardhan Thakur, Test Pilot with HAL from his Twitter account. ORCA is the idea behind the twin-engine Tejas Mk.2. This has raised many speculative questions.

The advantages of a twin-engine design are many. First, it will have increased speed and maneuverability, the jet will have enhanced range because it can carry more fuel and with refueling, it can be extended to well over 2000 km. It can carry larger combat loads. It is also less susceptible to mechanical failures or combat damage. It can carry larger combat loads. At high altitudes, using two engines will have tremendous supplemental benefits, as losing a single engine jet over water or land is a much more life-threatening experience. System redundancy is a tertiary benefit of multi-engine aircraft, since losing engine results in only a 50% loss in total available thrust, plus redundant generators and hydraulic pumps will allow the aircraft to fly. In addition, having two engines will reduce training losses.

The IAF needs 45 squadrons which should consist of a good mix of heavy, medium and light aircraft. The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is the heavy aircraft and is supposed to reach a total number of 272 which would comprise of 15 squadrons. The Rafale and MiG-29 would be the medium jets for about 8-10 squadrons. Then a single engine fighter including 60 Mirage-2000 and new Tejas Mk-II would be the light aircraft and should be some 20 squadrons in total. This last category includes the MiG-21 and MiG-27 which will be phased out in the next few years. So the need is urgent, to say the least.

Tejas has provided Indian engineers valuable knowledge and experience to design and build a cutting-edge contemporary fighter, the long gestation period taken to develop the Tejas will come in handy when designing and manufacturing the twin-engine jet.

Light-weight HMDS Helmet for IAF

DRDO has developed a new lightweight integrated helmet to be used by Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots, flying the country’s front-line fighters such as Sukhoi 30-MKI, Mig-29, Mirage 2000 and also Russian made vintage MiG-21 Bisons.

“The integrated helmet-mask assembly has been designed to primarily incorporate Helmet Mounted Display and Sight (HMDS) as per the user requirement,” DRDO said in a statement. The helmets were subjected to open jet wind blast test at 600 KEAS at DGA, CEAT, France as per the parameters specified in MiL 29591/1(AS).

The integrated helmet with internally retractable dual polycarbonate visor system  and pressure breathing oxygen mask has been developed by Defence Bio-Engineering & Electro Medical Laboratory (DEBEL), Bangalore.

The development of an indigenous HMDS display for fighter pilots will help the country to save precious forex reserves through import substitution.

The helmet-mask assembly was subjected to eight different profiles and has successfully withstood all the tests thereby proving the integrity of helmet-mask assembly during ejection.

Beyond-Visual-Range Drone Tested

The Army successfully tested an indigenous UAV, on 16 April, for autonomous delivery of load over Punjab. The test was carried out for delivery of Covid-19 items. The test proved an ability to operate at far-off ranges, at beyond visual line of sight, meaning the drone was remotely controlled either by a radar or another bigger UAV above it, and possibly the payload the drone could carry.

Three domestic drones were tested over Gobindgarh, Balluana, Malukpura villages around Abohar in Fazilka district of Punjab, located at distance of up to 25 km from the launch point and beyond visual line of sight from base. The task was ‘anti-Covid’ operations and to deliver essential supplies, including masks, liquid-sanitiser and medical canisters.

The Army coordinated these tests with the district administration, it is clear such operations can be on a large scale by increasing the number of drones and enhancing the endurance and payload of each drone. The Army uses a few bigger drones for surveillance.

The drones were flown over the earmarked dropping zone, made to descend to a suitable height and release its payloads.

UV Disinfection Tower

DRDO has developed an ultra violet (UV) disinfection tower for rapid and chemical-free disinfection of high infection-prone areas. The device is also effective for areas with large flow of people such as airports, shopping malls, metros, hotels, factories, offices, etc.

The equipment named UV Blaster is “useful for high tech surfaces like electronic equipment, computers and other gadgets in laboratories and offices that are not suitable for disinfection with chemical methods. The product is also effective for areas with large flow of people such as airports, shopping malls, metros, hotels, factories and offices,”  a DRDO statement said.

It was designed and developed by Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC) based in Delhi with the help of New Age Instruments and Materials Private Limited, Gurugram.

For a room of about 12×12 feet dimension, the disinfection time is about 10 minutes, while for a 400 square feet area, it would take 30 minutes by positioning the equipment at different places within the room, the statement said, adding that the sanitiser could be remotely operated.

Hitting  Enemy Targets Without Positioning Error

In a major development that could have a wider impact, ranging from accurate aiming on enemy targets to scientific research in space weather, scientists from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), have developed a global model to predict ionospheric electron density with larger data coverage.

The ionosphere is a major source of error in GPS/GNSS-based positioning and navigation networks. Due to the unavailability of a reliable model to predict the electron density of the ionosphere, navigation errors remain, creating technological hurdles. A new model developed by Indian researchers has potential applications in calculating these Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning errors.

Named as an ‘Artificial Neural Networks-based global Ionospheric Model’ (ANNIM), the development uses long-term ionospheric observations to predict electron density and peak parameters of the ionised part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, between 46-621 miles above the surface. The model successfully reproduced large-scale anomalies in the ionosphere caused by solar and cosmic radiation.

Although several fighter jet and other missile systems have been fitted with highly-accurate navigation systems, few weapons in service can yet take advantage of this model.

ANNIM replicates the processes the human brain uses to solve problems including pattern recognition, classification, clustering, generalization, linear and nonlinear data fitting, and time-series predictions. Very few attempts have been made to model global ionosphere variability using ANNIMs.

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