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

The Indian UAV Arsenal

The Indian UAV Arsenal

Indian Army Nishant UAV

     It's unbelievable numbers of unmanned platforms currently on the tri -services.  not only but Armed forces want double the Numbers of UAV's, as of now estimated that the Armed forces using more than two hundred of unmanned platforms.

        The Forces looking for micro UAV's like the Raven to MQ 4 Triton HALE UAV's, as of now Army operating more number of MALE ( medium altitude long endurance ) UAV's most of them used for only Reconnaissance and Target Tracking, which they designed to used,

         But the Air force  uses Killer drones like the Israeli Harpy and Haroop drones. the number of these drones still classified, that nearly hundred of them under operational by the Indian Air force, these drones used for SEAD operations only.

        The Haroop is an advanced UCAV used only by the Indians and Israeli's designed to Kill enemy radars and early warning networks, due to it's highly stabilized aero dynamic and slow speed, it's more maneuverable and fly too low and loiter before attack the target, this is the only good platform to attack high value targets before going to full assault.

          The Indian Airforce and Navy operating more advanced recon platform the IAI Heron MALE UAV's which can capable to fly more than two days continuously at an altitude of 10,000 Meters, they using this platform to track and recon specified area's for Counter Intelligence mission. some good characteristics are if you lost the control of such UAV's the UAV itself come back where you launched. such capabilities gives an upper edge to the  UAV can't fall in enemy hands, like the RQ 170 saga.  the Numbers of Heron is estimated more than sixty.

        But the Army uses dedicated UAV's, Army have more than hundreds of IAI Searcher drones. significantly less performance compared to the Heron. both range and altitude unlike the Heron It's designed to capable of tracking ground threats and recon missions. here also the numbers are unknown but more than 100 drones is in operational under the Army Aviation as of now.

   The home grown ADE Nishat is an another good UAV used by the Army, Nearly 10 of them under operational only by the Indian Army. unlike other drones It's have some other good features, a bit difficult to launch, you need the catapult truck to launch the Nishant, and it can be land with the use of Parachute free fall technique. the Nishant is an Battle UAV, used for many operation, since it's Endurance is capped less than 4 hours.

       But it can do good things such as guidance to target acquisition, Artillery fire support, that means, the Nishant guide the Artillery course to set the co ordinates correct to the enemy positions, to increase the Kill probability of Artillery, SIGNINT- the Nishant's payload capable to intercept enemy communications, if Nishant flies above enemy post any if they using wireless for communication Nishant track it and feed it to Indian command centers.

         There is a wheeled version of Nishant under trails knows as Panchi, which can be fulfill the Army's requirement and improvements in the early Nishant model, if trails successful army plans to add a fleet of hundred such UAV's in it's fleet to increase the Fire and Recon power.

    The Navy and DRDO uses the PTA for testing purpose, which can be used for testing Air defense missile's performance, the Lakshya used as a Target to the SAM and other Missiles to measure the performance of the SAM and missile system, the Astra and Akash already tested with PTA.

        There were couple more micro UAV's under operational by the Forces the good one is the NETRA Quad copter, it's not comes under the UAV category, it's good for search and rescue's Indian Para military such as BSF, ITBP using this. under NDRF it's proven it's performance in tough terrian and weather conditions.

   DRDO also studying the possible UCAV's the armed fighting drone under the code name of Aura, but the program is too classified and the details unknown to the Public.

   DRDO also engaged a project which is a HALE UAV which powered by solar power, used for long endurance recon mission, which is expected to be revealed within two years.  

Indian Air force Heron UAV

Modernizing the BSF

Modernizing the BSF

Polaris 4x4 ATV

       The long cherished dream of modernizing the armed forces has taken a major leap forward by inducting a number of Fast attack vehicles and Reconnaissance Drones to the Border Security forces which will effectively deter the infiltrators from Pakistan. BSF plans to induct variety of ATV's (All terrain Vehicles) which can be used to patrol along the borders. UAV's are being inducted an impressive pace and is being made operational under the BSF. The coast guards have inducted Fast Attack craft to patrol disputed waters along the Indian Pakistan Borders. This is a major boost to the BSF which is in charge of patrolling and guarding the 850 kms border India and Pakistan shares. BSF is an force which under disposal of the home ministry. The Home minister promising to modernise the forces had met with the Israeli counter parts that have for long suffered with the problems of infiltrations. Israel has now successfully adapted technologies which have drastically reduced the number of cases under the infiltration scenario. He was briefed by the Israeli homeland Security Counterparts during his trip to Israel. The first phase of modernization plans to implement the UAV’s and ATV’s along the border around Kutch.

 
          The First major part is buying all terrain vehicles as of now the Kutch region Border Patrol is equipped only with four such ATV's which are currently being used only for resupplying equipments to the patrol parties close to the border. BSF has used camels for transporting forces to the front line. This compromises speed and endurance which is very low compared to mechanical means, by inducting more number of ATV could solve the issue and can deploy the forces to the frontline with a very great optimal response time. The situation in Kutch is same as elsewhere in Kashmir the region is known for high amount of infiltrations attacks and is also prone to cross border firing by Pakistani troops. The BSF Inspector General of Gujrat region has been quoted saying “An array of ATV’s will soon be inducted into the Gujrat region. The IG has not mentioned the exact numbers or the means through which force will be equipped with the ATV’s.

       Protecting each and every inch of our land is the goal; border involves securing the water fronts. BSF as of now is equipped with only two small boats that lack any sort of firepower. The boats can’t operate under rough weathers which may be used by the hostile forces to infiltrate into India. BSF is now planning to induct all weather Fast attack crafts these boats are equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers and have scope for good communication equipments, and can perform fast interception missions. US coast guards gave for long used FAC’s to secure their inner water resources. A team from BSF was trained by US coast guards in the act of modernizing the crafts to be effectively used in creeks. BSF is believed to have signed a deal with a US based company to deliver FAC’s which would be inducted in a span of 3-4 months.

      With land and water borne threats taken care of BSF needs an eagle eye in the sky. As of now IAF is responsible providing BSF assistance in air reconnaissance missions. IAF has used either manned or unmanned platforms for such operations. IAF itself is under operational crisis and providing constant support to BSF has been extremely demanding off the IAF. To eliminate this problem BSF has planned to induct a number of small and medium UAV's which will be used for patrol and reconnaissance missions. Sources have confirmed BSF has also evaluated the Mini UAV's and are scheduled to take delivery of these drones from an disclosed company which will effectively arm BSF with an constant overview of the long disputed border.  

Heavily Armed ATV

Bluebird Launched by handheld device

US Navy Interception Boat

Model of Fast Attack craft with Mortar

Editor Karthik Kakoor