Scan Eagle and Hermes front running to seal the UAV deal

Scan Eagle and Hermes front running to seal the UAV deal

It's once again the Indian armed forces gearing up to buy unmanned aerial systems for it's tri services, with the proposed value of more than $3 billions under make in India program, Two UAV's American Insitu Scan Eagle and the Israeli Hermes running front to seal the deal. It's reported that Air force may stick with the Israeli systems, Navy and Army will move on with American UAV.

The UAV saga running front since the desi UAV program failed to meet armed forces requirement, The government soon process the RFI to acquire more than three thousand of UAV systems and it's associated equipment's. The Army gets low numbers Navy and Airforce gets more number of UAV's.

Under this new program, the UAV's must capable to fly more than 20 hours with the operational altitude of some 15,000 feet. The Indian airforce who loves the Israeli systems to keep rely on the Hermes UAV's which capable to meet air force requirements. The Air force is known customer of Israeli UAV's, from Heron UAV to armed drone IAI Eitan which is currently in order.

Beginning of this April, Indian company's Adani Cooperation and Alpha systems signed a contract with Israeli Elbit systems who design and manufacture Hermes 450 and 900 UAV's, to manufacture the same in India under the make in India program.

The Hermes 450 is an medium altitude and long range UAV, can capable to stay in the air for more than 20 hours, the 450 can perform observation mission with the range of 300 kilometers, by flying at the altitude of 18,000 feet.

The Hermes 900 is same like the Hermes 450 with double range and endurance than the 450. Both required a runway for autonomous take off and landing. Where the air force keen to use those new generation UAV's to keep the Air force bases and vital installations always under the bird eye view. The Hermes valued some $2M for an UAV and associated ground control systems.

Unlike the Airforce, the Army and Navy has sort of runways, so they were looking for a assisted launching capable UAV. like the Army's Nishanth UAV. Boeing's Scan eagle developed with the help of Insitu is front running to seal the deal.

Boeing's scan eagle is one of the combat proven UAV that has been used in many countries, also certified for maritime operations too, the Scan eagle can be launched by any Naval warship with the small setup in the fantail. The catapult launch system can launch the Scan Eagle and can be  recovered by parachute assisted by dedicated GPS signal.

The Scan eagle capable to fly at the speed of 120 kilometers and stay in the altitude of more than 15,000 feet. The Scan eagle stay in the air for more than 24 hours. with an operational range of some 100 kilometers for effective control and communication.

The Scan eagle comes with modular payload of world's smaller Synthetic aperture radar, to provide high quality images and weather condition of the battlefield, which suits better for both land and maritime operations. A set of Scan eagle system consists of four UAV's, one launching system and a control station costs around $3.5 millions.

It's reported that India will soon to take decision of buying those UAV's to increase the surveillance of the armed forces with the high end technology. There were still another procurement left which is the battlefield UAV's for ground troops yet to be issued.

Army plans to induct 600 Battlefield UAV's

Army plans to induct 600 Battlefield UAV's

    As the Future Soldier program is on the track, Army stepping up to induct more than 600 battlefield UAV into the infantry battalion, to get real time intelligence and surveillance even deep behind enemy lines, The army earlier drafted the same RFI earlier 2012, however it is just some tens of UAV's, and now they plans to move with higher numbers, The Army expected to float the Request for Proposal by coming year, and start receiving the UAV's by 2017, under make in India Program, so far three companies already expressed interest in this project,

    The RFI stated some basic characteristics of the Battlefield UAV, The main aspect and usage of the UAV should perform below operations

• Real-time, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.

• Detection of enemy movement.

• Target Detection, recognition, identification and acquisition.

• Post Strike Damage Assessment (PSDA). 

     The Real time surveillance and reconnaissance mission has the endurance of 45 minutes on the air and upto the range of some 10 kilometers, and additional 5 kilometers control should be using any other Flying platforms like Friendly Helicopters of other Surveillance plane, as a example the ground control can capable to control the UAV at some 10 kilometers only, further increase the range, the UAV must be work with Friendly Aircraft nearby, a unique technique used by most foreign Army's Recon missions,

    Detecting Enemy movement, with the thermal imaging and camera's, the UAV should count the heads of enemy ground troops and their current actual location should be transferred live to friendly forces, the network system can interlink all front line command center with the same video relay,

     Target detection and Acquisition is something critical technique, most the UAV's don't have the algorithm's to count how many heads moving how many heads out of actions, what kinda Armour is that, what about the resupply wagon and what is it inside  the wagon, thus kind of data can easily asses the enemies capabilities before striking,

    Post Strike assessment, mostly these data can be acquired by Spy planes and Satellites, however using such platforms makes high cost and needs bunch of clearance before flying above the destroyed zone, possibilities of unnatural effects also spread the zone, Deploying UAV's is good idea for PSDA.

     The RFI also stated the UAV must perform or follow existing Raster map coordinates, means the UAV can make Raster map or follow existing Raster map, Raster map means using color codes to denote the terrain availability, such as Hills, Trees, Mountain, Snow, River etc. the Digital terrain elevation data technique helps to examine the actual size and length of the Terrain, such as exact height of the Mountain, Tree's or Terrain, the onboard system should make a real time 3D mapping combined with  the Raster Map.

The RFI also states the Requirements of the UAV's size and Transport capability,

• Three Aerial Vehicles (AV) or platforms.

• One Man Portable Ground Control Station (MPGCS).

• Three Launch and Recovery Systems

• One Remote Video Terminal (RVT).

• Three colour day video cameras and Three monochromatic night thermal sensors.

• One radio relay (RR) 

      Army plans to give three UAV sets to each infantry unit, means one battalion gets one unit of UAV, means some 900+ Soldiers and Officer team equipped with a three UAV's and support elements, makes the scout team gets clear information before going for Patrol, and the same can be watched in the Battalion Quarters,

     The weight of one UAV with its MPGCS, backpack(s) (where required), one launch and recovery system (where required) and one set of Optical Sensors should not be more than 35 Kg. It should be possible to launch and recover the AV within an area of 50 metres by 50 metres. In case of a wheeled launch / recovery the AV should takeoff / land from an unpaved surface in a distance of not more than 50 metres.

     The Army asks two variants of UAV, however the same can be perform all the above missions, Plains and Hills Variant  capable of being launched and recovered upto an elevation of 3.0 km AMSL and operate upto 1000 metres Above Ground Level (AGL). It should have an endurance of 120 minutes with a loiter time of minimum 60 minutes with max payload at 1000 metres above take off altitude and ground operating temperatures of 0° (Zero degrees) C ± 5° C to plus 400 C ± 5°C, the Other High Altitude Variant capable of being launched and recovered upto an elevation of 4.0 Km AMSL and operate upto 1000 metres Above Ground Level (AGL). It should have an endurance of 90 minutes with a loiter time of minimum 45 minutes with max payload at 1000 metres above take off altitude and ground operating temperatures Minus 100 C ± 5° C to plus 300 C ± 5° C .

    Army Sticks that the UAV's should work in high dense of Electromagnetic shield, allows the UAV hack proof and safe from external interferences, Army insists the 461 E standard of  Electromagnetic stability in the UAV.

    Currently,  many  companies bidding for the contract, The Israeli company Aeronautic proposing the Orbiter Battlefield Drone and the Elbit systems offering the Sky Lark UAV, the same Israel Defense Forces using in Battlefield's,  those two of them yet to make a joint Company in India, those who are made a Company Jointly with an Indian Private firm only selected, meanwhile Americans are much faster, The Aeroviornment made an agreement and starts a Company with Indian Dynamatics Technologies, where they will offer the modified Puma UAV, known as Cheel, and Boeing teaming up with the TATA and proposes the Scan eagle UAV, the lead contender of the UAV procurement program .

     Also a Polish UAV company named WB electronics already supplied some UAV's to Indian Army. however it's very small numbers, the battlefield UAV named Flyeye, the WB already teamed up with the Indian Kadet Systems, who is also a lead contender in the Contract, WB also plans to build several models of UAV's with Kadet systems, and make the Indian Plant as their Head, they also shown interest of proposing ISR maritime surveillance drones for Indian Navy and Coast Guards