With Pak, China in focus, Army sign pact to develop home grown drones
Focusing on changing dynamics of military operations in Jammu and Kashmir, and Indo-China face-off at high altitude areas including hostile terrain of Ladakh and North Eastern states, the Indian Army has tied up with Drone Federation of India (DFI) to develop home grown drone ecosystems.
As per officials, Army Design Bureau (ADB) collaborates with DFI for ‘Indian Army’s Him-Drone-a-thon’ programme to develop a detailed roadmap for research and utilization of drone ecosystem that are to be utilised by the Indian Army in its operations
“This programme requires after ever changing dynamics military challenges being faced by the Infantry forces, which has put the boots on the ground despite hostile terrains,” a senior Army officer told.
As a starting point, together DFI and Army explore drone applications in logistics, load carrying at high altitude areas of above 13,200 feet and for autonomous surveillance, search and rescue ( between 9,000 to 13,000 ft) which is along the Northern and Western borders with China and Pakistan, respectively. The army is also looking for micro nano drones for room intervention and fighting in built up areas, said Army sources.
“The challenges in Kashmir’s counter insurgency and jungle warfare operations has now shifted from combat fight to technology driven encounters, this programme would prove lethal in such close fights with terrorists. It would also be helpful during hostage situations during close gun-fights” he said.
The officials further added that the Army Design Bureau will provide mentoring and enable field visits to the participants in order to give industry an exposure of real-life operational scenarios.
“This initiative in line with Atmanirbharta in defence manufacturing is aimed to catalyze and provide focused opportunities to the Indian drone ecosystem to develop path-breaking drone capabilities for meeting requirements of frontline troops,” a defence spokesperson said.
The spokesperson further added that Army’s support to the indigenous drone ecosystem is based on the principle that ‘good available ingenuously’ is better than the ‘best available globally’.
The spokesperson further added that the programme will be conducted in stages with quantifiable parameters (like altitude, weight, range, endurance etc) being progressively enhanced based on demonstrated capabilities.
“Broad activities planned include interactions and ideation between users, development agencies, academia etc, seeking of industry responses, visits by development agencies to operational locations to understand the ground perspective and requirements, handholding of development agencies for internal development and on-ground trials and actual conduct and evaluation of drone products,” the defence spokesperson maintained.
From the last one year, drones have become a major challenge for security agencies. The first case of using drone to attack a military establishment was carried out by Pakistan based terrorist agencies on June 27.
Drones used to drop explosives at the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Jammu airport, causing minor injuries to its two personnel. Following which several cases of drone drooping of weapons and narcotics came to fore. Forces constituted special anti drone units to keep watch on infiltration by drone along the borders.
Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh has also said that drones have added a new dimension to security threats from terror groups.
