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.

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Practice has proved that cognitive domain operations have broken the traditional online and offline data barriers. Through the integrated use of telecommunication networks, the Internet, the Internet of Things and other channels, and with the help of advanced algorithms, the initiator can effectively switch between various spaces and optimize the combat style, and even focus on private spaces and public spaces to accurately release interference information, so as to achieve effects that cannot be achieved by traditional combat methods.

In future cognitive domain operations, the influence of rational factors such as science and logic on individual cognition is likely to be weakened, and cognitive confrontation may become a contest between emotions and emotions.

At present, the rapid development of intelligent technology is changing the logic of information dissemination in an all-round way, making the impact of information on thinking and consciousness more profound and comprehensive, and human brain cognition has truly risen to an important field of military confrontation. In the era of intelligence, the continuous evolution of the information dissemination mechanism will systematically reshape cognitive confrontation from many aspects, thereby promoting fundamental changes in cognitive domain operations.

Artificial intelligence becomes the main driver of cognitive domain operations

In the era of intelligence, information dissemination is based on data, and artificial intelligence technology runs through the entire process of information collection, production, and feedback. The extensive and in-depth application of artificial intelligence, a disruptive technology in the military field, will be the key support for the entire process of future cognitive domain combat planning and implementation.

Artificial intelligence technology will run through multiple scenarios of future cognitive domain operations. In the process of deployment and rhythm control of combat operations in the cognitive domain, all parties involved rely on advanced algorithms as the “regulators” and “gatekeepers” of actions, and a large amount of information about battlefield actions from various combat domains provides information for all parties to the war. Efficient decision-making and implementation of cognitive domain operations provide the driving force. Practice has proved that cognitive domain operations have broken the traditional online and offline data barriers. Through the integrated use of telecommunication networks, the Internet, the Internet of Things and other channels, with the help of advanced algorithms, the initiator can effectively switch between various spaces and optimize the combat style. It even focuses on private spaces and public spaces to accurately release interference information, so as to achieve effects that cannot be achieved by traditional combat methods.

In addition, artificial intelligence has evolved from empowering a single link to connecting all links of combat and the entire process. At present, artificial intelligence is limited to locating target audiences in information dissemination to improve the matching rate of information and destinations. In future cognitive domain operations, artificial intelligence will play a “one-stop” role in the planning and implementation of cognitive domain operations, and will continue to strengthen the coupling between various links. The foreign military believes that in future cognitive domain operations, differentiated delivery of data can be used to activate robots to instantly create public opinion trends and affect cognitive effects. At the level of strategic campaigns, based on long-term tracking data and continuously adjusted and optimized algorithm strategies, it can measure the cognitive situation of different regions and groups, and assist decision makers in planning core narratives and major issues, thereby regulating the implementation of actions and coordinated actions.

Autonomous confrontation has become a prominent feature of cognitive domain operations

With the continuous expansion of intelligent programs from collaborative communication, participatory communication to autonomous communication, and the connected ecology of smart terminals, officers and soldiers will increasingly be able to receive various types of information sent by smart programs and smart terminals on the battlefield in the future. In the virtual space, the interactive communication between digital twins and virtual people will transmit the cognition of people in the real world. From the perspective of the development trend of cognitive domain operations under intelligent conditions, the degree of human intervention will gradually decrease, the collection, synthesis, and transmission of information ammunition will be more autonomous and efficient, and the formulation and execution of discourse strategies and action strategies will become more autonomous. The pace of the whole process is unprecedentedly fast. But as far as the result is concerned, humans are still the ultimate goal of combat in the cognitive domain, and the process of empowerment and acceleration by autonomous weapons will continue to strengthen the control of human cognition.

With the help of autonomous confrontation tools such as intelligent programs, intelligent terminals, digital twins, and virtual humans, all parties participating in the war will have more flexibility in the deployment of cognitive domain combat situations, space-time use, and information content design, and the confrontation between information authenticity and falsehood will be more efficient. protrude. In future cognitive domain operations, autonomous weapons will likely break through the limitations of power and time and space, and their action patterns will become more complex. The practice of foreign militaries shows that the use of the Internet to carry out “spray irrigation” communication for the general public and “drip irrigation” communication for specific groups will become a common pattern of cognitive domain operations. Smart programs and smart terminals can support the development of more and more complex action patterns due to their characteristics of batch replication deployment and non-stop operation. For example, it is possible to quickly mobilize a large number of social robots around specific issues and target specific attack objects, take turns to concentrate and spread information, or use smart devices around specific individuals to collect relevant data, and use dialogue robots, virtual humans and individuals to interact with each other for a long time and continue to guide them achieve combat objectives.

In future cognitive domain operations, autonomous weapons covertly manipulate cognitive domain battlefields will become the norm. Social robots can create fake public opinion and hotspots as needed, thereby generating more fog of individual perception; intelligent synthesis technology will lower the threshold for false information production. As a result, the cost and difficulty of counterfeiting will be increased; robot accounts and virtual human sources will be more difficult to identify, and “one-to-one” cognitive fraud is becoming more and more common.

Emotional Conflict Becomes a Prominent Attribute of Cognitive Domain Operations

In the era of intelligence, new technologies will broaden the scope of human cognition and deepen people’s perception. Extended reality, metaverse and other technologies will more holographically and transparently present the battlefield environment, event scene, etc., and the scene can be touched, felt and interacted, and the audience will be more subject to the influence of perceptual logic when they perceive the truth of the event.

Thanks to the development of the mobile Internet, the rapidity of information dissemination has increased rapidly. Through the centralized release of large batches of information in a short period of time, the response time of individuals can be greatly compressed, making it difficult for individuals to think deeply. Before the full picture of the event is fully displayed, the audience often has formed a position tendency and even turned their attention to a new focus. The mode of outputting conclusions based on fragmented clues intensifies the irrational and emotional response to information. In future cognitive domain operations, the influence of rational factors such as science and logic on individual cognition is likely to be weakened, and cognitive confrontation may become a contest between emotion and emotion. In the choice between resorting to rationality and resorting to sensibility, all parties involved in the war pay more and more attention to moving people with emotion, agitating, occupying and even polarizing the target object’s mind through perceptual means, and leading the confrontation situation in the cognitive domain.

In the era of intelligence, cognitive leverage increasingly relies on emotional competition. On the one hand, cognitive resonance is enhanced with emotional arousal strategies. In future cognitive domain operations, the initiator of the action selectively presents the cruel and fierce battle scenes, post-war scenes, or the process and status quo of soldiers participating in the battle, so as to strongly stimulate the audience’s emotions and awaken the audience’s innermost feelings emotional identity. As a node of the communication network, people can collect various physical signs data through intelligent algorithms, so that the initiators of actions can more accurately study and judge the emotional effects of information, so as to dynamically adjust the content and strengthen emotional responses. Action initiators use data calculations to select groups with similar understanding contexts and the same emotional characteristics, or to select specific individuals who are susceptible and have a greater influence value, and stimulate them through targeted dissemination of homogeneous information flows. Group cognitive resonance.

On the other hand, use the moral coercion strategy to stimulate value recognition. In the face of accumulated and aggravated fragmentation and irrational cognitive response patterns, the initiators of combat operations can occupy the moral high ground through the discourse system of binary opposition, gather the torrent of self-interested value cognition, and then achieve the coercion effect. The rich forms of presentation in the intelligent communication environment and the direct access to the public’s social channels provide a convenient means for action initiators to use this strategy. In local wars in recent years, technological evolution has gradually demonstrated the promotion of moral coercion strategies. For example, social media has exposed the secret diplomacy of the past to the public. The details of communication between the upper echelons and elite groups, etc., and discourse strategies are increasingly emphasizing moral arbitration and criticism, thereby influencing and stimulating the international public to support their own value positions.

The Internet of Everything Expands the Battlefield of Cognitive Domain Operations

With the development of information communication technology, social media has gradually become the main battlefield for shaping cognition. Institutions, individuals and people of all warring parties can directly contact and interact with each other through social media, making all-weather cognitive competition possible.

In the era of intelligent communication, the Internet of Everything has become a new social connection model, and communication subjects and communication behaviors are ubiquitous. Under this influence, the combat space in the cognitive domain will expand to smart IoT terminals and scenarios, and to the two worlds of physical space and virtual space. The Internet of Everything leads to the ubiquity of the combat space in the cognitive domain, which will further promote the ubiquity of combat subjects. Natural persons, intelligent terminals with information sending and receiving capabilities, and even virtual characters in the network world may become combat subjects, and cognitive domain operations will participate in the war. The types of forces will be greatly expanded, and the organizational method of cognitive domain operations will change to distributed coordination.

In future cognitive domain operations, people and machines deep in the conflict will become an important force in combat. With the support of intelligent technology, they will collaborate to draw battlefield pictures and participate in the “writing” of the whole process of war. Soldiers on the frontline continuously share their personal battlefield experiences through social networks, and push them to the world in a timely manner after personalized packaging. Individual equipment and combat platforms will be responsible for battlefield image collection and transmission tasks, and trigger automatic processing and release mechanisms according to preset procedures, cooperate with physical space combat operations in various ways to compete for information control and brain control. With the continuous development of communication technology, frontline soldiers and intelligent equipment can also reprocess and reprocess the information they have in a targeted manner according to the instructions of their superiors, so as to present the battlefield scene they want to express more conveniently and panoramically, to achieve the ultimate goal of fighting in the cognitive domain.

Source: China Military Network – PLA Daily

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The seminar was inaugurated by Gen VK Singh, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation. The Keynote Address was delivered by Dr VK Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog.

Session I – Inaugural Session

Welcome Address. Air Marshal Anil Chopra, Director General Centre for Air Power Studies, highlighted the wide range of applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) which includes surveillaance, security, logistics, civilian uses in areas of agriculture, transport and many more. He further discussed the increasing significance of the application of UAS in military services. Air Marshal Chopra also highlighted the lessons from the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the increasing usage of drones with proliferating defensive as well as offensive capabilities. He emphasized India’s excellent efforts in developing drone technologies and the development of an unmanned aerial ecosystem. He further underlined India’s potential to become a global drone industry in the coming years.

Inaugural Address. Delivering the Inaugural Address, Gen VK Singh, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, traced the history of drones and discussed the increasing efficacy of UAS. He further highlighted the significance of emerging technology along with the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) in the utilization of drone technology both in the civilian and military domains. He further emphasized on the role that India plays in building this ecosystem. Gen Singh threw light on the Indian government’s plans and initiatives which have been undertaken for making this a reality. Underlining the significance of this technology in the coming years, he elucidated that the government has been supportive of this and that an ecosystem is supportive of research and development in this domain. He also mentioned that the rules and regulations have been revamped with the new drone policy of 25thAugust 2021 which seeks to change the regulatory regime for drones. He stressed the ‘Make in India’ initiative and the increasing use of drones in all sectors, civilian and military alike.

Keynote Address. Delivering the Keynote Address, Dr VK Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog, emphasised the integration of drones into the existing aviation space. In his detailed presentation, Dr Saraswat focused on five main research areas of the UAS which included smart UAV, remote sensing payloads, Robotic UAV payloads, Multi-vehicle networking, Fault-tolerant and robust UAV navigation—i.e., enabling ship-based UAV operations in remote and harsh conditions. He mentioned that as the systems become more and more autonomous with the advancement in technology, it becomes necessary for India to engage in quality and indigenous R&D programs to be initiated in India’s premier higher education institutions such as IITs. Dr Saraswat also spoke about the UAV’s military applications which include strike missions, intelligence & situational awareness, electronic warfare, suppression, and destruction of enemy’s air defence, network node or communication delay, and combat search and rescue. He concluded by making three arguments- (1) Atmanirbharta is necessary in the UAS sector; (2) the necessity to develop extremely good designs and design capabilities with the need for deep R&D; and (3) the efforts in this sector must be qualitative and not just focused on numbers.

Special Talk. Air Marshal Radhakrishnan Radhish, SASO Western Air Command, gave a Special Talk and discussed changes in the UAS systems in the past few years. He mentioned the increasing demand in the civil sector for UAS highlighting the fact that various e-commerce giants also venturing into this domain. Highlighting the need to increase the role of UAS in the IAF, he discussed as to how UAS can play a major role in providing intelligence along with other military responsibilities. Drawing lessons from various conflicts around the world in the past few years, he opined that UAS would complement manned fighter aircraft. He also mentioned that the IAF is developing a road map for the UAS. He also spoke about the increasing use of niche drone technology and swarm drones pointing out that by 2026, India could potentially emerge as the world’s third largest drone market. This is along with the fact that 23per cent of the global drone start-ups are in India.

Special Talk. Lt Gen Ajai Kumar Suri, Director General, Army Aviation also gave a Special Talk and brought in a fresh perspective from the Indian Army. The Indian Army has been using drone technology for the last two decades. He further discussed the need to extrapolate how others are utilizing this surveillance mechanism. The induction of drones into the Services is now unavoidable. He underlined certain challenges, like genuine, indigenous technological development; airspace management; counter drone measures including matching capabilities with those in competition or developing better technology; and outsourcing the task of UAS to civil industry. He stressed that UAS could emerge as a formidable force multiplier and should be employed to its full extent.

Release of Knowledge Paper. Col KV Kuber, Director Defence & Aerospace, E & Y in the presence of the esteemed guests which included presented the EY-IMR Knowledge Paper on the Unmanned Aerial Systems, which was released by the guests.

Session 2—UAV Requirements

The theme of Session 2 was UAV Requirements of the Services, their efficacy, present technologies, and the way forward. The session was chaired by Air Vice Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, ACAS (Plans), Air HQ.

Sameer Joshi, CEO, Newspace Research and Technologies discussed the ‘Design and Development of the UAVs at Newspace for Penetration of Contested Airspace.’ He explained the notion of contested airspace as ‘layered defence’ further discussing the SWOT analysis where he touched upon manned platforms; stealth (manned/unmanned); Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAVs and drone swarms. He further discussed the feedback from SWOT analysis which included manned platforms highlighting that they will suffer attrition while penetrating the contested air space. He mentioned that the stealth/low radar cross-section (RCS)in unmanned or manned assets is most effective even though they come with technological or cost implications. He underlined that the significant increase in the number of UAVs will eventually increase the combat capacity and survivability in a contested environment. He discussed that the UAVs are complementary with force-multiplying capabilities, and not the replacement for 4th or 5th-generation manned assets. He further mentioned that the stand-alone non-stealth MALE UAVs will not be able to operate at will in the contested air space, and therefore, will suffer huge attrition. He mentioned that swarm drones offer the best return of investment towards saturation of targets. He further discussed that the requirements of stand-alone small-sized drones will increase exponentially to locate and fix targets right down to the squad level, provided they can survive baseline anti-drone measures. According to Mr. Joshi, Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) will be an important component of collaborative autonomy as the need in terms of air warfare by the end of 2022.Mentioning that robots are the future warriors, autonomous robots extend military reach into well-defended battle space, operating with greater range and persistence. In the end, he mentioned the salience of AI, highlighting that through AI there is a guarantee to take on dangerous and suicidal missions with minimum possible casualty both in terms of providing greater success in the face of increased threat levels and penetration of well-defended airspace.

Gp Capt NK Chaubey, Director NBC, Air HQ explained the ‘IAF’s UAV Plans.’ He discussed in detail the UAS systems such as Searcher MK-II, Heron and Heron MK-II utilized by the IAF. While explaining their tasks, he explained about the Imaging EQ/IR and SAR, SIGINT gathering, COMINT gathering, laser designation, RPA assisted helicopter and fighter strike, battle damage, assessment, search & rescue, base-defence missions, HADR missions, live coverage of various tests and trials. While discussing the way forward, he discussed the MALE class remotely pilot aircraft with enhanced capabilities including uninhabited combat air vehicle (UCAV), loiter munitions, UAVs for Base Defence, indigenous productions for sustenance, and inter-service operations. Discussing the Manned Operation and Intelligence Centre (MOIC) section, he focused on the enhanced capabilities of the IAF to generate intelligence; centralize a hub for archival and analysis of all ISR data; and simultaneous control of UAVs through SATCOM.

Col Kumar Gaurav, Col Avn-10 (RPAs), Army Aviation Directorate, Army HQ, shared his views on ‘Army’s HALE and MALE UAV Requirements.’ He explained that HALE RPAs and MALE RPAs were the perfect examples of splitter-shooter platforms. They can engage with the target with onboard weapon systems which include laser-guided bombs, missiles, and anti-tank missiles. Similarly, MALE RPA can acquire the target, get precise data of the target, and transfer data to long-range vectors. Col. Gaurav also discussed that RPA AO/payload has the capacity to carry out overall damage assessment and re-engage the target by the HALE UAVs.

Lt Col Shubham Madan, GSO-1 (Equipment), Infantry Directorate, Army HQ spoke on ‘Army’s Tactical UAV Requirements.’ He identified four areas – logistics, surveillance, enemy threat, and counter-drone operations, where UAS were needed for infantry observation requirements. He mentioned that as part of logistics, the requirements criteria included 5500 metres AMSL, 1000m AGL, 20-50 kg, and 10-15 km. While mentioning the logistical challenges he discussed the road infrastructure in forwarding areas, winter cut-off of posts, and last mile connectivity. In terms of surveillance, the requirements were highlighted as 6000m, 1000m AGL, vertical take-off and landing and man-portable. He also highlighted the requirements by terrain, i.e., in the North-East region, J&K, plains and deserts. While discussing the main challenges for surveillance, he mentioned the forwarded areas, varied terrains and lack of landing grounds. For counter-drone operations, he raised the questions of range and cost-effectiveness. Further, he mentioned that counter drones should be able to detect, identify and destroy the target while identifying the enemy threat as – Armed and ULP GMs.

Cdr Hemant Shekar, Commander (AW)-RPA, Naval HQ focused on ‘Navy’s experience with drones and future plans.’ He highlighted the restricted speed, electromagnetic radiation and susceptibility to detection, RPA’s detectable by C/D radars of ships, range limited to line of sight, and operational capability in fair weather only. The key focus of the Navy has been to enhance the capabilities in the areas of long-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), surveillance and reconnaissance. During the discussion, he highlighted that currently, the Indian Navy had UAVs which have navigation/control features combined with specialised sensors, mainly aimed at achieving precise surveillance over the enemy territories. However, there is a need for the UCAVs to go beyond surveillance into a new dimension with their weaponised capability to engage in air-to-surface (land/water) and even air-to-air targets.

Nagendran Kandasamy, CEO Throttle Aerospace Systems (TAS) discussed ‘How Drone Defender enables safer airspace?’ The Drone Defender is loaded with 13 pre-programmed modes to lock, track and neutralize rogue drones. It can effectively neutralise threats without any human intervention. It aims to provide a first-of-a-kind capability to the Indian defence forces to discard rogue drones flying over unauthorised airspace. This is in context with the rising instances of drone-based aerial threats to restricted installations under defence and private airspace. According to Kandaswamy, this can be considered to be a key milestone in India’s journey of self-reliance in defence preparedness.

Session 3—Industry’s Potential and Capabilities

The theme of Session 3 was Industry’s Potential and Capabilities. It was chaired by Rear Adm AN Pramod, ACNS (Air), Naval HQ.

Gp Capt Sudhir Verma, Retd, Aerial IQ India discussed ‘Atmanirbharta in UAS Technology.’ He recounted the journey of Aerial IQ in the manufacture of drones. He mentioned that reaching the desired capability takes technology and time. So, significant effort and time have to be spent on the research and development of UAVs. He further discussed the support provided by the Government of India to drone startups mentioning that this will boost indigenous manufacturing, and the drone certification scheme to ensure safety and quality requirements are a few positive steps taken by the government in favour of the Indian drone industry. Gp Capt Verma discussed Aerial IQ’s initiative to develop tethered drones, which is unique and has had considerable sales due to its great potential. He highlighted that Aerial IQ is totally indigenous with the aim to make drones that fit into the requirements of the industry.

Ravi Hazarika, Sales Director, PBS India gave a talk on “PBS Engines for Unmanned Aerial Systems.” He explained the company’s focus on in-house development, production, testing and certification of turbojet, turboprop and turboshaft engines. He further elaborated that the company has expertise in engine testing. Discussing PBS TJ40-G1, he highlighted that it can be used with the hybrid electric motor. This is basically a turbojet engine that is meant for UAV systems, such as target drones and decoy drones, which also has low weight as one of its qualities. The company has also produced PBS TJ80, having the best thrust-to-diameter ratio. It is a turbojet engine designed for missiles, target drones and UAVs. The PBS TJ150 by the same company is a turbojet engine having higher thrust and a smaller diameter. It is light in weight with a powerful thrust of up to 1500 Newton along with low fuel consumption.

Col KV Kuber, Director Defence and Aerospace, E&Y gave the “Industry Perspective on UAS.” He mentioned that high economic growth in India has boosted the country’s entire UAV/Drone startup ecosystem. Further highlighting that co-production was the key for Atmanirbharta, he mentioned that this would help in reducing the input cost. So, there is a need to involve private industry in R&D. He highlighted that Atmanirbharta also meant that whatever indigenous products that any company produces should have the ability and confidence to improve on it on a much larger scale. He elaborated on ongoing drone initiatives in Indian firms like HAL and Adani Defence. He also spoke about India’s UAS exports like the Garuda drone which is exported to Malaysia. He stressed that while capability development can be done through technological developments, capacity building will be achieved through a robust industrial framework. He defined exports to be numerators, and production to be the denominator. According to him, a healthy balance between these two means a state of mutual interdependence, where a greater denominator reflects lacking abilities and the presence of vulnerabilities.

Session 4— Innovations and Research & Development

The theme of their session was Innovations, Research & Development. It was chaired by Cmde Vivek Dahiya, Cmde (SR), Naval HQ. The session focused on discussing the phenomenon of disruptive technologies taking over and becoming mainstream.

Chandreyi Suhas, Scientist F, ADE, DRDO gave a presentation on ‘Latest developments in UAVs.’ Briefly mentioning the future battlespace which will comprise manned, unmanned and hybrid aerial systems, she discussed in detail ADE’s product portfolio, including Pilotless Target Vehicles (Lakshay), Nishant SR-UAV, Panchi UAV and Rustom-1 (Short Range UAV for Reconnaissance). She also highlighted the aero materials, especially composites, strike aircraft variants, cruise missiles, aspects of stealth/ low observability technologies, RCS reduction technologies and radar absorbing paints.

Ashish Sharma, Director, WB Electronics, India, gave a brief overview of WB Electronics, India. He emphasized the company’s areas of activity which are crucial for the transfer of technology. He discussed in detail the Topaz Integrated Combat Management System, U-GATE Dismounted observation and unmanned system, and other systems offered by WB Electronics.

Wg Cdr Anand Pethia, Retd, Adani Defence and Ido Lichter, Vice President, UAS Engineering, Elbit Systems together gave a talk on ‘Evolution of Unmanned Aerial Systems from Segregated to Un-segregated Airspace.’ Pethia stressed on the importance of shifting focus from fighter operations to UAS, which will help to bridge the shortage of squadrons in a two-front war. Pethia elaborated on ‘the India Drone Rules 2021’ and explained how authorities are opening up the skies for drone testing in limited airspace. Ido underlined the importance of military certification, core standards of certification, the basis of certification, and why “certification is not enough and being ‘certified’ is now needed.” Further, Ido emphasized on the need for rigorous testing for building standards to reach a mature level of conformity.

Col Rajan Desai, Col Artillery & Aviation, Army Design Bureau, spoke on ‘Swarm Drones’ and brought out the enhanced significance of indigenous swarm drone technologies, highlighting the advantages of cost and operability, that have been observed in recent deployment scenarios. He underlined the design gaps of the drone industry which included the inability to test in high altitudes and extreme terrains. He elaborated that the Indian government is supporting the domestic start-up ecosystem through various policies, competitions and initiatives.

Wg Cdr Sarang Vashisht, Air HQ, discussed the ‘Meher Baba Swarm Drones Competition’ which began in October 2018, to honour Late Air Cdr Meher Singh, DSO.

Session 5—Counter UAVs

The theme of this session was “Counter UAVs”. It was chaired by Air Vice Marshal Rakesh Sinha, ACAS Operations (Offensive), Air HQ.

Brig Manish Kumar, Brig (Ops & C2), Army Air Defence Directorate, presented his views on ‘Countering the UAV Threat.’ He spoke on the significant targeting and destruction of drones in recent conflicts between Armenia-Azerbaijan and Russia-Ukraine. He emphasized the ‘urgent vs important’ aspects in the development of counter-drone capabilities and the key precepts of the UAS like the command-and-control systems, SATCOM, telemetry, navigation, positioning, and means of propulsion. He also explained the mitigation philosophy based on the threat environment and the importance of control through a centralized structure.

Azeez P, Scientist F, LRDE and V Kishore Kumar, Scientist D, DLRL, DRDO, together spoke on the DRDO developed ‘D-4 Anti-drone System.’ The speakers explained the Drone Detect, Deter and Destroy system (D4S) – the first indigenously developed anti-drone system to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces. While highlighting the usage of counter-drone technology for surveillance to identify and mitigate through hard and soft-kills, the speakers also delved into the basic issues faced by the counter-drone systems, which included the size of drones and the importance of automatic classification between drones and other entities. Their discussion also highlighted challenges like detection effectiveness, false positives and false negatives, collateral damage and signal disruption.

Air Marshal Anil Chopra, Director General, CAPS gave the Closing Remarks and Maj Gen Ravi Arora, Chief Editor, Indian Military Review gave the vote of thanks.

Report prepared by: Dr. Anu Sharma, Dr. Ngangom Dhruba Tara Singh, Divyanshu Jindal, Prachi Lokhande and Jay Desai.

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The present multi-domain warfare and impending theaterisation demand coordination and integration across all domains. Communication enables this coordination with real time interaction and transmission of data amongst the fighting forces in all domains. All this is facilitated now with digitisation of the communication in all dimensions.

The aim of Digitisation and Network Centric Operations (NCO) in the Armed Forces webinar & virtual expo was to provide a forum for the stakeholders in the Services and Industry to enable information exchange on latest technologies particularly relating to the digitisation in the Army, effective network-centric operations, C4ISR, communication systems, decision support information systems for exchange of data and big Data including its challenges and vulnerabilities, the space domain and impact of new technologies (5G, IoT, AI, VR/AR) on warfare.

The event brought together stakeholders from the armed forces, DRDO, public sector, industry and academia and provided them a platform to present their views and discuss pathways.

Inaugural Session

Welcome Address. Lt Gen Sunil Srivastava, Director, Centre for Joint Warfare Studies put the theme of the Webinar in context and highlighted the present multidomain warfighting environment. He emphasized that digitization and net-centric operations were the core of battlefield dominance. All actors were leveraging digitization and NCO by weaponising information technology. He said that we must embrace digital jointness to unlock the digital battle space. Seamless sharing of warfighting information will generate shared operational awareness, effects and tempo which we could use to our advantage to paralise the adversaries OODA cycle. There is a need to seamlessly share info, link sensors & shooters and decision makers, even in a degraded environment, aggregating the combat capabilities of Services while remaining physically disaggregated. C2 Agility brings Force Agility which enhances Force Effectiveness.

Special Address. Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Chief of Integrated Staff to Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) spoke of the contextual relevance of the webinar with the urgent operational need of Services to move forward towards joint networking and digitisation especially as our adversaries and particularly the Northern neighbour was already exploiting it, leaving no choice but to move forward at a faster pace in this direction. He opined that in modern warfighting the one who dominates in the information domain will stand to win. Space and cyber domains while being independent also influence operations in other domains. In his address, he brought out the relevance of satellite surveillance and satellite communication and several new technologies such as 5G, Artificial intelligence etc., all of which enhance the warfighting capability.

Keynote Address. Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Information Systems & Communications), Army HQ gave the Keynote Address and an outline of new initiatives and consolidation of the earlier efforts undertaken by the Indian Army in its journey towards induction of modern technology for conduct of military affairs at all levels involving operational, logistics and human resources. He talked of new generation technologies like Artificial intelligence, 5G, Quantum technology, Robotics, drones and so on. In this journey, the Army is also coordinating with several agencies under the Ministry of information technology, DRDO and academic institutions like IITs and has ordered studies and conducting seminars to remain in step with the new technologies for conduct of military affairs both in peace and war. He was critical of the long process of our defence procurement since by the time products are inducted, these are at the verge of obsolescence. To infuse efficiency in the process, he suggested to pin point accountability for the delays in the procurement process and also suggested a layered GSQR concept which would give time to the concerned staff to introduce workable amendment in the GSQRs so as to stay abreast with the technology. As regards communication, he informed that, as dug in cable communication remains vulnerable, the focus now is on wireless and digitised communication and net centricity between services. He mentioned that an integrated operational and intelligence system will facilitate Theaterisation.

Technology Perspective. Dr Ranjana N, Director, Directorate of Systems and Technology Analysis (DSTA), DRDO HQ, pointed out that digitisation was inevitable. She said that data was a strategic asset. Improved knowledge at all levels could naturally lead to integration in all layers of operations which may even call for changes in the tactics and doctrines. Data must be protected and managed to attain immediate and long-term strategic advantage to the military. Designing of systems is a challenge since it not only has to be robust in hardware and software but, their modularity and scalability is also essential. Cyber hardening of storage, NW and Sensors is equally important. Obsolescence of equipment and their upgradation is big challenge. We are constrained to run old systems with systems of new technologies. Thus, along with old systems, we should able to operate/integrate new sensors and technologies such as 5/6G, AI, big data etc. She cautioned that conceptualisation is the big challenge since the product may not exactly be as visualised. Further, layered architecture and modularity are the key to the modern comn equipment and will have to be developed indigenously. She highlighted that DRDO is working on GIS, Adhoc NW, MANETS, SDR, EW, AI, XL-UUVs, change detection and mine hunting.

Industry Perspective. Col KV Kuber, Director Defence & Aerospace, Ernst & Young gave the industry perspective. He asserted that COVID-19 pandemic had forced digitisation in the country including in the Services. He felt that digitisation in the Services was lagging behind the civil side. Therefore, the pace of digitisation in the Services needed to be hastened particularly in procurement, which could be faster with digitisation. He said that since legacy systems could not be changed in one go, digitisation should be able to integrate the old legacy systems as well. Compatibility, interoperability and backward integration were important. He highlighted the AKANKSHA model of DRDO. He recommended adoption of the waterfall/Agile approach and exhorted that procurement should not be an imprisoned by procedures.

Session 2 was earmarked for Digitisation issues related to the Army. The session was chaired by Lt Gen Dr RS Panwar, former Commandant of Military Collete of Telecom Engineering. Brig Ulhas Kirpekar, Brig Information Systems, Army HQ spoke on “The Digital Army and Initiatives.” Maj Gen K Shankar, Additional Director General Telecom in the Directorate of Signals, Army HQ spoke on the “Role of Army Cloud Centre and Digi Locker.” Brig SS Soin, Brig Telecom, Signals Directorate, Army HQ gave a presentation on “Future of ASCON and AREN Networks.”

The theme of Session 3 was Network Centric Operations and was chaired by Vice Adm Shekhar Sinha, former FOC-in-C Western Naval Command. Capt JS Sachdeva, Captain NCO, Naval HQ spoke on “Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap requirements of the Navy for NCO.” Col Vineet Jaiswal, from Directorate of Information Systems gave the “Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap requirements of the Army for NCO.” Air Cmde KN Santosh, Principal Director, Operational Networks, Air HQ spoke on “IAF Technology Perspective & Capability Roadmap requirements.” Gp Capt Parijat Saurabh, Air HQ spoke on “Meeting Electronic Warfare Threats.”

Session 4 was on C4ISR, Command & Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence. The session chairman was Lt Gen PJS Pannu, former Dy Chief IDS (Operations). Dr K Rajalakshmi Menon, Program Director (ISTAR), Centre for Airborne Studies, DRDO gave a talk on “ISTARS for Indian Armed Forces.” Col Abhijit Singh, Colonel Artillery-9, in the Directorate of Artillery, spoke on “Aerostats for surveillance and C2.”  Gp Capt P Batra, Gp Capt (Airborne Sensors & Networking), Air HQ gave a talk on “Airborne Early Warning Aircraft as Force Multipliers.”

Session 5 was devoted to Communication Systems. Lt Gen Rajeev Sabherwal, former SOC-in-C and Commandant MCTE chaired the session. Col Gurmeet Singh, HQ IDS, gave a talk on “Tri-Services Strategic / Operational Communications.” Brig Rajiv Singh, Brig Tactical Communication Systems, from Signals Directorate spoke on “Battlefield Tri-Services Tactical Communications.” Himansu Kumar Swamy, Scientist E, Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research, DRDO spoke on “Maritime Data analysis & visualization.”

Session 6 was on Information, Data and Big Data – Challenges and Vulnerabilities. The session was chaired by Maj Gen Pritam Bishnoi, former Additional DG Tactical Communications, Signals Directorate, Army HQ. Brig Inder Sethi, Brig CICP, Ordnance Services Directorate spoke on “Data Sovereignty and Big Data Analytics.” Devsena Mishra, Promoter Advanced Technologies gave a talk on “How Big Data and Big Tech undermine national security.” Maj Gen Manjit Singh, Joint Secretary (Cyber) NSC Secretariat gave a talk on “Emerging cyber security threats.”

Session 7 dealt with Space Domination and Satellites under the chairmanship of Lt Gen Satish Dua, former CISC. Air Cmde Prem Kumar, from the Defence Space Agency spoke on “Requirement of robust space situational awareness.” Gp Capt Amarendra Samal, Gp Capt Operations (Space), Air HQ gave a talk on “Steering India towards military space domination.” Capt Manish Kumar, Capt NSO-SA, Naval HQ gave a presentation on “Security of satellite-based Communication networks.”

Session 8 covered New Technologies – 5G, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality/ Augmented Reality and was chaired by Lt Gen MU Nair, Commandant MCTE. Dr Santu Sardar, Director DRDO Young Scientists Lab gave a talk on “Relevance of Quantum Communications Technology for Armed Forces.” Brig Navjot Singh Bedi, Commander Defence Communications Agency. Spoke on “Relevance of 5G for the armed forces.”  Maj Gen Harsh Chibber, Maj Gen ASC HQ Western Command spoke on “Transforming and Reducing Costs of Military Logistics Through IoT.”

The Closing Remarks were given by Lt Gen Sunil Srivastava, Director CENJOWS while the Vote of Thanks was delivered by Maj Gen Ravi Arora, Chief Editor, Indian Military Review.

Key Points Needing Attention

The key points which emerged in the eight sessions of the webinar are tabulated below:-

• Theaterisation would need tri-service digital infrastructure to support seamless op, decision support structure and battlefield management & C2 constructs.            

•  One of the challenges in integration is to have an attitudinal change towards automation and adopting agile processes. This also involves breaking away from silos.                                                                                                                 

•  The architecture of NCO system will require individual Service data centres and secure linkages with the joint regional data centre with a robust and secure cloud storage. The cloud storage will reduce the burden of forward fighting formations, which could retrieve relevant information, as required.

• The ongoing transformation in the strategic and tactical communication network i.e., Army Static Switched Communication Network (ASCON) to Network for Spectrum (NFS) and Army Radio Engineered Network (AREN) to Tactical Communication System (TCS) with overarching presence of satellite communication must continue to achieve the transformational targets. In that, the fibre optics based NFS is the back bone and integrator of three services. This is planned to be supplemented with satellites and microwave communication to extend it till the forward edge of the battle through TCS.

•   Besides three Services, the data and information also emanate from several other sources and also from other domains such as space, cyber etc in different formats which need standardisation.

•  To pick up relevant intelligence, about the adversary’s capabilities / limitations, information sharing will not only be between Services but, could even be from other national/ international sources. This requires synergy with various national and international organisations. With introduction of core strategic network NFS, the Army, Naval and Air force Strategic networks should handshake with it for integration of their data, video and voice communication.                

•  It is important to invest in infrastructure for safe, secure and seamless joint operations with holistic evolution in organisations, doctrine, strategy and tactics.

•   Legal Aspects of Warfighting. We also need to invest in legal aspects of war fighting which are often ignored or do not get due attention.                                                                                                                                  

•   IACCS. Indigenous IACCS of Indian Air Force in its 10 years of operations and in quite robust. Phase 5 would be implemented now. Trigun and Akash Teer projects of Sister services when linked to this system will enhance NCW capability of the Services hence, must be pursued actively.

•   Slow Modernisation. One major challenge is to use the legacy system along with modern equipment. The industry, academia and services have to find an answer to this challenge.

•   Upgradable Systems. Technology upgrades faster than we acquire systems. Therefore, we need to draw a line up what we can absorb and implement and periodically upgrade, say in 5 or 10 years, to reap the benefit of the changing technology.

•   An incremental and evolutionary approach is required in NCW where end state cannot be defined since it is always evolving but, our efforts must be measurable to stay on course towards our goal.

• Role of EW. Dominance in frequency spectrum would aid in gaining advantage over the adversary in the land, sea and air and space domains.

•  ISTAR Development. Integrated Surveillance Targeting and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) under development by DRDO, with close interaction with IAF, utilises several high technologies for offensive and defensive roles in one platform. All three Services must be involved in the project at this stage of evolution, especially since the system identifies surface targets.

•  Possible Naval Role for ISTAR. Inclusion of additional sensors like anomaly detector, pollution detector and AIS in ISTAR will broaden its employment potential in naval role.

•   Broader Exploitation of ISTAR. ISTAR should have seamless integration with other national intelligence networks for gauging the intent and moves of the adversary. The potential of ISTAR for broader exploitation should be examined.

•   Use of Aerostats. Aerostats have been used by the IAF for surveillance. Other Services can examine their employment with due consideration of disadvantages like vulnerability, blind zone, limited employment in mountains, shorter life and endurance.

•  AWACS. It provides immense force multiplier capability. However, it remains a lucrative target using LR SAMs and LR Anti radiation missiles. The number of AWACS required would depend on the expanse of op area needing coverage.

•  C4I2 Requirement for the TBA. To implement the C4I2, we need robust, secure, high bandwidth wireless communication for formations particularly in the TBA due to requirements of mobility. Apart from the common standards, formats and protocols, joint encryption, mission specific applications, the bandwidth requirement of the communication is vital and must be ensured. Systems with self healing capability are required for the TBA.

•  GIS, AI and Robotics. Common Geographic information for the three Services is vital and should be prioritised.

•   Wargaming and Simulation. The robustness and the reliability of the communication systems can be tested in realistic wargaming and simulation exercises.

•   Situational Awareness Model for the Indian Navy. DRDO has developed Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) for the Indian Navy, followed by Indian Navy Situational Awareness System (INSAS) and finally by 2027, Navy aims to develop Indian Navy Common Operating Picture (INCOP) with many more analytic features using new technologies and communication systems. With these developments DRDO and Indian Navy have shown the way for indigenisation for the other Services to emulate.

•   In TBA, three services besides their inherent conceptual variances use varied types of legacy and IP based modern communications. The communications are static, deployable and mobile. It is recommended to check the efficacy and status of integration in operations and test bed to identify variances and then find solutions to integration challenges.

•   Info, Data and Big Data Challenges. The big tech companies while serving our communication needs, also pose challenge to our security since the data collected by them is stored beyond the national boundaries, thus, beyond the purview and jurisdiction of national law. This opens possibilities of its misuse which is inimical to our sovereignty, national and security interests. Hence, the data sourced with in the country must be stored with in the country so that these remain under the purview of our law enforcement agencies.

•   Security. With increase in digitisation in defence, the threats too proportionally have increased in this domain. Therefore, communication products and contents must be sourced from the trusted sources only.

•   Space Domination. Space situational awareness is vital for collision avoidance as well as to keep an eye on developing threats in the space domain. While collision avoidance would be ensured by ISRO, the threatening satellite or anti-satellite activity is the domain of the defence. Optimum solution for generating required warning / data is vital for both. The first step towards this is building of robust SSA.              .

•   Space Observation/Surveillance. To enhance security, we need to enhance our observation in the area of interest with dedicated capabilities at LEO.

•   Vulnerability of Satcom. Satellite communication is vulnerable to external interference at various levels i.e., at satellite level, in command-and-control link as well as its ground infralstructure. Such attacks/ interferences are difficult to attribute to an adversary. Hence, the diversity and robustness of satellites and its infrastructure is vital.

•   Quantum Comn. Unlike other forms of comn, which remain vulnerable, the quantum communication will ensure secure military communication. Several countries are engaged in the research in the field, eg, China and US have achieved considerable success. Indian defence forces, too, should not lag behind. DRDO (young scientist laboratory) is following a road map and is moving ahead with research in this new area comprising several applications.

•   Relevance of 5 GTechnology in the Armed

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Forces. 5G will enable monitoring, collation and present relevant data of all activities for better coordination and informed decision taking of high order. Thus, it acts as a force multiplier. It will facilitate transition from old archaic procedures to new processes, increasing efficiency of the defence systems. Armed forces require low to high frequency bands from below 3GHZ band to above 6GHZ band to cover all operations. Dedicated specialist teams should be established to interact with the industry and monitor progress of rolling of 5 G in the armed forces for various facets of its use.              

•   Reducing Cost of Military logistics through IOT. The use of the emerging technology will overcome challenges and bring in transparency, reliability efficiency and decision making with use of less man-hours. Following actions will help to implement use of technology in logistics:-

(i)            Institute inhouse system studies to explore potential use of IOT and Blockchain.

(ii)           Standardize protocols for data sharing.

(iii)          Nominate lead agencies as per domain expertise.

(iv)         Earmark test beds and evaluate.

(v)          Expand scope throughout the organisation.

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