Killer and Surveillance Drones for India

 Killer and Surveillance Drones for India.

India is once again behind in acquiring Predator/Attack drones. Pakistan has acquired the Turkish Bayarktar 2 UAVs. It’s 40 personnel have already been trained in Turkey in its operation and maintenance. Two years back Pakistanis had acquired Chinese Wing Loong drones (worthless copies of the Western hardware) hence they are ahead on this newest warfare technology. Bayarktar have been proven in Armenia-Azerbaijan and in the Syrian war. Initially, Ukraine used the Bayarktar but either the Russians managed to shoot all of these down or these were withdrawn in favor of free hardware from US/NATO.

India woke up late to the new war technology. Indian Marshals and generals are trained in the conventional warfare technology of Tanks, fighter jets, artillery and frontal attacks. They woke up late to the low cost drone danger from high above. The Indian drone Rustom (under development for 10 years) was not very successful. As this remains a prototype, the private sector must contribute to the effort.

US and Israel had built high powered hunter killer drones with long range, higher ceiling and bigger payload capacity. India has leased two United States MQ-9 drones for naval surveillance. Other drones of Israeli descent (Heron) were acquired, but in insufficient quantity. The Indian Army are just about now writing out RFI and acquisition specifications for drones from Indian sources. They need 2200 drones, including low cost UAVs, UCAVs, attack loitering ammunition, swarm drones and others. The most urgent need is high flying surveillance drones for the northern border. 

The lowest of the low cost Iranian drones/flying bombs acquired by Russia from Iran were used in Ukraine. The western sources claim that most of these were shot down. Whatever reached their target, have created a havoc by shutting down 40% of power distribution system there.

Negotiations are underway to acquire 30 of the major MQ9 drones from the United States. Once acquired, these high flying drones will change the balance of drone power in the neighborhood. But this is a high-tech export from the U.S. It is subject to numerous restrictions and approvals, hence a long process.

The low cost drones are to be built in India and negotiations with Indian vendors with outside collaboration are in progress. The whole process is three to four years late.

The Army needs urgently surveillance drones from Indian sources. These can be built in two to three years, also needed is a drone killer system, but none exists other than missile shoot down. The Ukrainian war could lead to that technology development. Missiles are expensive to build and use. Iranian type drones are cheaper than buying a car.

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