Bharat Rakshak

But they are proving unsuccessful in tracking down Maoists since the infra- red rays emitted by the synthetic aperture radar operate with perfection in a clear landscape, but are unable to penetrate foliage in the jungle, an officer aware of the development, said.

US is planning to sell its battle-proved armed drones to key allies, including India, but the move is being opposed by lawmakers who don’t want the technology to be exported.

It is believed that India would be one of the potential target countries for the US to sell its drones. India has been purchasing drones from Israel for quite some time now, and has been developing its drone capabilities, but does not have armed drones like the Predators and Reapers used by US security agencies with devastating effect against Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.

The UAV Fulmar is a small-size model (3.1 metres) weighing only 19 kilos that can fly at a height of 3,000 metres and achieve 150 kilometres per hour, with an 8-hour flight range that would allow it to fly up to 800 kilometres without having to refuel.

The demonstration confirmed the ease of installation and flying of the UAV Fulmar, as it does not require a runway for takeoff and landing given that it is launched from a catapult and is recovered by means of an impact-absorbing net. Both elements are simple to install in a short time and in different places.

In a significant boost to Indian capabilities in using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) — a laboratory under DRDO — conducted flight trials of micro and mini UAVs at Hoskote near Bangalore.

According a press release from the DRDO, three Micro Air Vehicles named Black Kite, Golden Hawk & Pushpak with sizes ranging from 300 to 450 mm with a maximum ‘all up’ weight of 300 gms to 500 gms have been flight demonstrated and these vehicles have an endurance of 30 minutes and carry a miniature daylight video camera as payload that relays the imagery of the gaming area to ground control during its flight. The video and telemetry range is about two kilometres.

These vehicles are designed and developed to meet requirements including countering low intensity conflicts, counter terrorism and for rescue operations during natural calamities. These small vehicles are capable of flying in full autonomous mode and transmitting live day and night video to the portable Ground Control Station (GCS) in real time. Two mini UAVs categorised under 2 Kg class vehicles with endurance of 1 hour were also demonstrated and these vehicles carry either a daylight camera or thermal/night vision camera (one at a time) as payload and thus have capability for both day and night surveillance.

One can easily strap bombs to netra uav and use it in counter insurgency operation.

Each unit costs around Rs.15-20 lakh.

Thales has reinforced its coastal and maritime border surveillance offer thanks to the FULMAR maritime surveillance and identification UAV system from the Spanish firm Aerovisión.

Thales has bolstered its maritime surveillance systems offer with the addition of innovative surveillance and identification capacities, through the integration of the FULMAR long lasting medium-range UAV, a 100% European platform with a unique capability of landing at sea. Jointly developed in Spain by the teams of Thales and Aerovisión, the Thales solution considerably improves the operational capacities of the coastguards by enabling rapid and easy detection of new threats.

In this way, Thales is able to propose a complete and modular solution for coastal surveillance and intervention, built around a C2 system and incorporating multiple coastal sensor data (radar, electro-optical, sonar, Automatic Identification of Ship - AIS etc.), mobile surveillance, communication networks and mobile equipment with intervention capabilities (UAVs, patrol / interception craft, vehicles, etc.).

BAE Systems has for the first time successfully demonstrated the ability for an unmanned aerial vehicle to recover to an airfield which is unfamiliar to its mission system.

The demonstration – conducted at West Sale in Victoria – was conducted by a Kingfisher 2 UAV, and also saw the vehicle successfully integrate into nearby RAAF East Sale’s busy air traffic services.

“Most autonomous landing technologies require a fair amount of specific detail about an alternate recovery airfield before the aircraft’s launched on its mission,” said BAE’s Airborne Systems Integration and Development’s general manager Brad Yelland. “We’ve shown that we can get the aircraft back safely when its mission system has almost no detail about an airfield but still has to land there.”

Elbit Systems is displaying its largest platform of the Hermes family of UAS – Hermes 900.

Hermes 900 was designed as a derivative of the Hermes family of UAS, introducing significant savings and enhanced capabilities over existing platforms. With over 300,000 operational flight hours with Hermes 450 UAS, the new ‘900 inherits the reliable building blocks, ground support equipment, payloads and ground mission controls, while expanding the flight envelope and endurance to new levels.

Among the key capabilities offered by the new drone are longer endurance, flight altitude of 30,000 ft. and a large payload capacity (up to 350kg). Unlike many other UAS, the Hermes 900 is designed with a 2.5 meter long internal payload bay, capable of accommodating up to 250 kg and allowing quick modular payload installation and replacement. The spacious bay accommodates multiple payloads with more installed on four hard points under the wings. The UAS includes innovative avionics and electronic systems, a low noise engine, as well as solutions that can be offered for sense & avoid capabilities and safe integration of the UAS into the relevant air space.

The ‘900 employs the same ground control station, line of sight data link, various sensors and key ground support equipment elements as the Hermes 450. This enables seamless insertion of the new UAS into Hermes 450 units, enabling users to benefit from reduced logistics and operational cost.

A typical sensor suite includes the baseline EO payload DCoMPASS, or Stand off EO/IR/Laser system such as the AMPS from ElOp. Different area surveillance missions can be performed in parallel to the EO payloads; these include various radar systems such as the SAR/GMTI and Maritime Search Radars. Three new mission specific sensor packages are being introduced for the drone – the electro optic mapping and survey area scanning systems (LASSO), hyperspectral payload and wide area persistent stare system.

The sheer size of the drone enables the deployment of other sensors – hence, the SIGINT payloads include the Skyfix COMINT/DF and Skyfix-G COMINT GSM systems. Electronic attack configurations may include the SKYJAM communication jamming system and AES 210 V/V2 ESM (ELINT) systems.

Hermes 900 uses an integral satellite communication data link enabling operations beyond line of sight and in mountainous areas, where line-of-sight restricts non SATCOM UAS from descending to lower altitude. In addition, the UAS can takeoff from a launch and recovery site in theater and be controlled from a mission station positioned remotely and conveniently in the user’s home facilities thousands of miles away. In order to implement this capability, Elbit Systems uses a cutting edge SATCOM system that combines highly advanced technologies, increasing bandwidth efficiency and assuring maximum cost effectiveness for its customers.

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While GPS can be accurate to < 1 meter resolution, that capability is only available to the US military. Everyone else has to make do with a degraded signal which is accurate to around 20 meters resolution or so. The only way to get around this is to create your own GPS system, which some countries are attempting to do, such as the EU's Galileo system and India's IRNSS program. However, these systems are still under development and until they are brought online, everyone has to rely on the GPS system from the US.

'First flight of UAV Rustom-2 scheduled in Feb, 2014'

The first flight test of indigenously developed UAV Rustom-2, set to be used solely for defence purposes, would take place in February 2014, a top Aeronautical Development Establishment official said today.


He said the entire project of making 10 Rustom-2 UAVs and spare vehicles at a cost of Rs 1,540 crore would be completed by August 2017.

Indigenous technology would enable ADE save about 40 per cent cost, he said, adding that all parts, except for cameras and sensors, have been developed in the country.

Weighing 1.8 tonnes, Rustom-2 would have a capacity payload of 350 kg, a wing span of 21-odd meters and an endurance of above 24 hours, he said.

Rustom-2 is in the league of US 'Predator' drones due to its advanced capabilities and additional payloads, he said.

The real question is why he is in China when he could have as well worked out of India..

As of July 2010, the Air Force had identified 79 drone accidents costing at least $1 million each. The primary reasons for the crashes: bad weather, loss or disruption of communications links, and "human error factors," according to the Air Force. As Lt. Gen. David Deptula, former Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, has noted with refreshing honesty, "Some of the [drones] that we have today, you put in a high-threat environment, and they'll start falling from the sky like rain."

Most unmanned aircraft flown by the U.S. military require not just a ground-based "pilot," but also a platoon of surveillance analysts (approximately 19 per drone), sensor operators, and a maintenance crew. Some 168 people are required to keep a Predator drone aloft -- and 180 for its larger cousin, the Reaper -- compared with roughly 100 people for an F-16 fighter jet. To keep up with the demand, the Air Force has trained more drone operators than pilots for the past two years. The upside is that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, drones "are usually less expensive than manned aircraft" ($15 million for a Global Hawk versus about $55 million for a new F-16), though costly sensors and excessive crashes can negate the difference.

Army-funded researchers at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory are popping out Harvard Monolithic Bees ("Mobees") from multi-layered, laser-cut blocks about the size of a quarter.

Inspired by pop-up books, the manufacturing process could allow for rapid production of dozens of flying robots and other electromechanical devices. The research is being published in the March edition of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

In the RoboBees project, Pratheev Sreetharan and colleagues want to build bee-size robots that can fly and act autonomously as a colony. Until recently, it used a painstaking manual assembly method.

The prototype sheets consist of 18 layers of carbon fiber, titanium, brass, ceramic, adhesive sheets, and the plastic film Kapton. As seen in the vid below, the bee snaps together as it pops out of the laminate.