The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Army (IA) ordered 10 Heron Mk2 drones from  IAI in early 2021 under emergency procurement power granted to the armed forces following the PLA’s incursion across the LAC into India-claimed territory starting February 2020.

The initial plan was reported to lease the drones for three years, but later a decision was taken to purchase them outright.

Heron Mk2 is an upgraded variant of the Heron drones already in service with the IA & the IAF.

Fitted with a Rotax 916 iS engine, the Heron MK II can reach an altitude of 35,000 feet, a maximum speed of 140 knots, and remain in the air for 45 consecutive hours.

Due to improved manufacturing technologies, the Heron MK II has a broader and stronger body structure, allowing quick and easy maintenance without adding weight.

In comparison, MTOW for Heron drones already in service in India is 1,270 kilograms, and the payload weight is 470 kilograms. The length, wingspan dimensions, and other specifications of the two drones are similar.

The Heron Mk2 features better radio, radar, and optical sensors giving it better stand-off capability than its predecessor. The Mk2 can look and listen deep into adversary territory without crossing the border or putting itself in harm’s way of adversary air defenses.

The Mk2 can be configured with different payloads depending on the assigned role.

Eventually, the goal is to weaponize the Indian Heron fleet with locally manufactured precision-guided munitions.

The post India-Israel Negotiating To Manufacture Heron Mk2 Drones appeared first on IMR.

A proposal to manufacture Heron Mk2 in India under license is also being discussed, Janes learned during Defexpo 2022 held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, from October 18 to 22.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Army (IA) ordered 10 Heron Mk2 drones from IAI in early 2021 under emergency procurement power granted to the armed forces following the PLA’s incursion across the LAC into India-claimed territory starting February 2020.

The initial plan was reported to lease the drones for three years, but later a decision was taken to purchase them outright.

Heron Mk2

Heron Mk2 is an upgraded variant of the Heron drones already in service with the IA & the IAF.

Fitted with a Rotax 916 iS engine, the Heron MK II can reach an altitude of 35,000 feet, a maximum speed of 140 knots, and remain in the air for 45 consecutive hours.

Due to improved manufacturing technologies, the Heron MK II has a broader and stronger body structure, allowing quick and easy maintenance without adding weight.

Heron Mk2 Specifications

In comparison, MTOW for Heron drones already in service in India is 1,270 kilograms, and the payload weight is 470 kilograms. The length, wingspan dimensions, and other specifications of the two drones are similar.

Heron Mk2 Sensor Payload Options

The Heron Mk2 features better radio, radar, and optical sensors giving it better stand-off capability than its predecessor. The Mk2 can look and listen deep into adversary territory without crossing the border or putting itself in harm’s way of adversary air defenses.

The Mk2 can be configured with different payloads depending on the assigned role. Options include:

EO (Electro-Optical)/IR (Infra-red) sensors under its fuselage provide a real-time battlefield vision under all lighting conditions. Using a satellite communication link, an LRF (Laser Range Finder) facilitates precise distance measurement and real-time targeting information.
An LD (Laser Designator) allows a target to be illuminated for a stand-off strike by a fighter aircraft using laser-guided bombs.

For surveillance, the drone can be fitted with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) or an MPR (Maritime Patrol Radar).

ELINT/ESM payloads facilitate electronic snooping and spoofing.

Armed Variant

Eventually, the goal is to weaponize the Indian Heron fleet with locally manufactured precision-guided munitions.

India and Israel have been in talks since 2016 to weaponize the existing IAF inventory of Searcher & Heron drones under a top secret and classified program code-named ‘Project Cheetah.’

However, Project Cheetah & a proposal to acquire ten armed Heron TP (see below) made no headway because of Israeli restrictions on the transfer of advanced technologies that would need to be embedded in the drones.

Alluding to the General Atomics pitch to sell MQ-9 Reapers to India, an Israeli source told FlightGlobal in 2017, “The restrictions that the Israeli Ministry of Defense attaches to the export of this advanced UAV are many, and in such a close competition may be a crucial factor.”

Heron TP?

In the past, there were reports in the Indian media that India was acquiring 10 Heron TP drones under a deal estimated to be worth $400 million. The Indian government approved the purchase in September 2015.

In early February 2020, it was reported that IAI & HAL would sign a contract to manufacture Heron TP drones in India. The agreement was to be signed during DefExpo 2020, with 100 drones projected to be manufactured to meet the requirements of the defense services.

The Heron TP is a much larger drone with an MTOW of 5,670 kilograms and a payload of 2,700 kilograms. It can cruise at over 45,000 ft and has an 85-foot wingspan, the same as a Boeing 737 airliner.

The payload carrying capacity of the drone would facilitate arming it with air-to-surface missiles.

The IA & IAF have opted for the Heron Mk 2 instead of the Heron TP. The decision would appear logical, considering India wants to weaponize its inventory of Searcher and Heron drones under Project Cheetah.

Weaponizing Herons and Heron Mk2 would involve developing the same weapons, hardware, and software. Weaponizing Heron & Heron TP would need double the resources.

The post India Negotiating With Israel To Manufacture ‘Weaponizable’ Heron Mk2 Drones 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.