Bayraktar type drone in India

 Bayraktar type drone in India

Can the Indian military bureaucracy reorient itself to direct the country’s money from fighter jets, aircraft carriers, tanks and armored vehicles to newest fighting technologies of UAVs and artificial intelligence drones etc.? Today, the battles in Ukraine are not so much with tanks and planes, but more with missiles, drones and drones. The goal is to catch the enemy by surprise from a UAV flying at low altitude, hardly detectable and with long endurance. It has changed the nature of the war. 

In the Middle East and the Ukraine wars of the last three years, UAVs have played a role. Turkey's Bayraktar-TB2 construction played a vital role in Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia.

In Ukraine, Bayraktar-TB2 sold by Turkey blasted the Russian tanks and armored columns advancing towards Kiev. It is still in use and at $5 million or less a piece it is expendable. 

In performance, it is nowhere close to the American MQ-9, but you can buy ten of Bayraktar-TB2 for the price of one MQ-9. 

What exactly is Bayraktar... 

This is a medium altitude Long Endurance UAV (MALE). It does not carry a large payload like MQ-9 or Israeli Heron, but it delivers its 150 kgs payload with chilling precision. Its warhead payload includes radio-controlled anti-tank guided missiles and tank buster laser-guided precision munitions that make it useful as an offensive weapon. Its range of 150 km is tiny compared to greater than 5,000 km for Israeli Heron or American MQ-9. This is also the case for its payload. Its technology is not complex. It’s Turkish inventor Selçuk Bayraktar is an MIT - Boston graduate and a direct relation of the Turkish President. He had married his daughter. Hence it is inevitable to assume that he had the full Turkish government financial and technical support. Turkey is a NATO member who has had access to many NATO technologies, although the inventor denies it. The British "Guardian" alleged that a lot of technology is British. Still the inventor has to be complimented for putting it together. 

Where about is India in this technology? 

A first UAV model, called Ruston-1, was tested by ORDD in 2008-2009. The improved version with a higher load capacity and the Ruston-2 series was tested in 2018. All this R&D cannot be further exploited without private sector involvement. Bureaucratic delays always play their role. The contract to build a number of prototypes has not yet been awarded. Instead, import hungry Indian Army has opted for the most sophisticated MQ-9 from US and Heron from Israel, hence the Bayraktar has been outclassed.

Advanced missiles will make Ruston 1 & 2 more capable hence have to be purchased abroad and integrated in India. That is no sweat, but it delays their deployment.  Thus, the MQ-9 and Heron will have to be used in the meantime. Neither Chinese, nor Pakistanis have anything comparable like the one India is opting for.

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