UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

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Sanjay
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Sanjay »

To ask a question:

How many UAVs do the Indian armed forces have ?

62 Herons (12 Navy and 50 IAF) ?

100 Searchers

12 Nishants ?

That's as far I have been able to calculate.

Any input welcome.
Indranil
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Indranil »

ashish raval wrote:One can easily strap bombs to netra uav and use it in counter insurgency operation.
You are way off the mark here.
aniket
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by aniket »

Isn't the cost of Netra a little high ?
Each unit costs around Rs.15-20 lakh.
Will the cost decrease once mass production is achieved ?
vic
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by vic »

I think we should try to get Neuron tech for our own UCAV by leveraging Rafale deal
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by sum »

X-post:
sum wrote:IAF plans separate UAV cadre
In what would be a significant move once it comes through, the IAF is already in talks to have a separate cadre for the RPVs and is in the process of drafting a proposal to be sent to the Centre.

“Just like the fighter pilots, transport pilots and so on, this will be a role-specific cadre, so that the officers are trained for a specific role from the word go,” a senior official said.
The IAF, which already uses UAVs, is in the process of multiplying the forces. And DRDO’s Rustom and Lakshya-II are also expected to be inducted into the IAF.

Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Headquarters Training Command, Bangalore said: “...There are talks about sending a proposal for this. We currently discussing various options.”

Speaking to Deccan Herald over phone he said: “...It would be part of existing squadrons but said that the numbers might not to the same tune. Flying squadrons have about 12-15 aircraft.”

Indicating that the procurement/acquisition of the UAVs in the future will be based on very careful assement so as to balance between the manpower and the role of such vehicles, sources said that the number of UAVs however will not be as high as 12 or 15.
The IAF though, is already training its personnel for this specific role as the air force already has some UAVs in its fleet.

But Kukreja said: “At present we are diverting people who are medically incapable of being fighter piolts into this role but with the kind of advances the medical field is making, we will soon see the number of such people reduce. And that is where this proposal comes in handy.”
Badar
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Badar »

India Eyes More Drones For IAF

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... 0For%20IAF

"the Heron TP Eitan—which costs an estimated $35 million."
Kailash
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

Thales enhances its maritime border surveillance offer
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.).
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

BAE demonstrates UAV recovery capability
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.”
That, is a real breakthrough
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

Asian Debut for Hermes 900 UAV
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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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by keshavchandra »

DRDO officially display the Lakshya and Rustom UAV at singapore air show.Indian defence technology have attracted strong interests from Brazil, Canada, Israel, Jordan, Japan, Myanmar, Singapore and Japan at the Air Show from February 14-19. :)
Indian defence technology attract global attention in Singapore
keshavchandra
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by keshavchandra »

Navy UAV crashes near Vizag
no loss of life or property, thx to god...
Pranav
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Pranav »

x-posts from special forces thread -

------------------------------

How accurate are the coordinates that can be acquired by UAVs? Good enough to feed into precision guided artillery?

------------------------------

The fundamental issue is that of determining locations of targets in real time, and rapidly delivering ordinance accurately to those locations.

What is needed is UAVs fitted with SARs, thermal imaging cameras etc which can accurately acquire targets within an accuracy of a couple of meters say, and the ability to send PGMs there.

Any ideas on what is possible in principle, and what DRDO might be able to deliver.

--------------------------------
ArmenT wrote:^^^^
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.
Right ... but IMHO the harder issue is coordinates acquisition. You can put a gimballed camera on a UAV. You know the location of the UAV with GPS, and you can get roll and pitch values with level sensors. Using a series of GPS measurements can give you the approx bearing, but then if there is a wind, the UAV may not be pointing in the direction of travel. A compass would also give approx data.

Perhaps better to use 2 UAVs and get the target coordinates by triangulation. First get approx location using one UAV, then get both UAVs to take simultaneous snaps of the site. Then a human operator takes the two images and manually locates the target on each. You have the GPS readings of each UAV at the instant of the snaps. You would also have a non-real time satellite image of the area, with coordinates grid.

Of course one or both UAVs can be replaced by a soldier on the ground, but you may often not have somebody on the ground when a target is first spotted in a remote area.

The question is what accuracy you can get by using all this data.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Singha »

^
At the Aviation Expo/China 2011 last September in Beijing, Fetters told Flightglobal the aircraft has a 78hp (58kW) engine, and an endurance of up to 2.6h at its cruising speed of 177kmh. Fetters is a freelance American UAV designer who resides in China.

wow. I hope the stavatti stalma guy also joins him in self-imposed exile there to create the J-21
Kailash
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

The real question is why he is in China when he could have as well worked out of India..
Vipul
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Vipul »

'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.

"Designing of Rustom-2 has been completed, purchase orders have been placed and we are on schedule to fly for the first time in February 2014," ADE Director P S Krishnan told reporters.

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.

"Rustom UAVs could be deployed for military missions like reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, target designation, communications relay, battle damage assessment and signal intelligence," Krishnan said.

In future, India would also develop Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) and solar drones, he said.

Rustom-2, designed and developed by ADE, a DRDO laboratory, is comparable to top drones in the world, he said.

The second edition of the two-day international Conference on Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles would get underway here from February 24, Krishnan said.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by chackojoseph »

vic
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by vic »

Vipul wrote:'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.
A UAV of the nature of Rustom -2 should cost around US$ 5-7 million or so. Assuming Rustom-2 is even cheaper, say US$ 4 to 6 million USD, I guess that 10 Rustom UAVs mean ten "units" of Rustom UAV which would mean around 10x5=50 flying aircrafts. That would mean price of around US$ 6 million per UAV including development cost.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

Possible guesses on the engine used?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kersi D »

Kailash wrote:The real question is why he is in China when he could have as well worked out of India..
Because he would have to report to and take orders from a Class III babu and he may not have liked it
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by hnair »

China can have him, along with the amazing "ex-USSR super scientists" that they were alleged to host.

Whatever hollywood/bond movies try to convince us about the awesomeness of "nerds of Americas", we do not want "independent consultants" in a cutting edge area like UAVs skulking around Old Airport Road. In these sensitive areas, Gerard Bull was an exception and even he had controls put on him by his native country's alliances.

We are not yet there, where dissident thinkers and researchers consider Indian academia as a cozy refuge and anyone else claiming otherwise needs to be vetted.

As George J-saar rightly says, we want more of these sort of awesome people.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by ranjbe »

Interesting little nuggets of information about drones:
10 Things You Didn't Know About Drones
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.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... s?page=0,0
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

Robot bee assembles in pop-up origami trick
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.
Colony of UAVs - sounds like the "swarm" from Prey (Michael Crighton). Yet another Indian steering a project at Harward.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Singha »

>> $15 million for a Global Hawk

thats a steal considering its range, ceiling and payload, but likely just the empty cost...the uber sensors and kit going in will cost millions more.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

I believe "costly sensors" are excluded to arrive at 15 million :)
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by nachiket »

Singha wrote:>> $15 million for a Global Hawk

thats a steal considering its range, ceiling and payload, but likely just the empty cost...the uber sensors and kit going in will cost millions more.
This is what wiki states
The Global Hawk costs about US$35 million to procure each aircraft.[3] With development costs included, the unit cost rises to US$218 million
It also mentions the FY2012 flyaway cost as $105 mil.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

Northrop Grumman BAMS Unmanned Aircraft System Program Achieves Two Major Milestones
"The MFAS sensor is the first radar system to provide full 360-degree persistent coverage of both open oceans and littoral regions from extremely long ranges," said Paul "Buz" Kalafos, vice president of Surveillance Systems. "The MFAS radar sensor will set the standard in maritime surveillance."

The MFAS sensor operates with a rotating sensor that incorporates electronic scanning and provides mode agility to switch between various surveillance methods. These include maritime-surface-search (MSS) mode for tracking maritime targets and inverse-synthetic-aperture radar (ISAR) mode for classifying ships. Image-while-scan capability is used to interleave very short duration ISAR functions (ISAR snapshot and high- range resolution) during MSS scans. Two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) modes are used for ground searches; spot SAR for images of the ground and stationary targets and strip SAR for images along a fixed line.

Once targets are detected by MFAS, the data is sent to ground station units in the form of tracks, single frame snap shots, as well as high resolution snapshots while still maintaining 360 degree coverage.
No concrete numbers :evil:
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

Solar-powered UAVs may fly soon
BANGALORE: Solar-powered Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and vertical take-off and landing of UAVs will be key developments in this field, DRDO chief controller R&D (aero) A Subhananda Rao said on the sidelines of the International Conference on Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles 2012 here on Friday.

He said while solar-powered UAVs will have high-endurance capabilities and operate at altitudes up to 30,000 ft, ship-borne vertical take-off and landing UAVs, which will have rotors, can carry out reconnaissance activities on the high seas.

"UAVs are gamechangers now. In recent years, UAVs have demonstrated their capability to perform missions from reconnaissance to surveillance as well as search & rescue in uninhabited airspace," he said.

The current mandate is for HALO (high endurance long range) -- the requirement by the government is 300-kilometre range and 24- hour endurance. "This project's first flight will be in February 2014," he said.

Rao said they have not been given the mandate to produce a combat UAV. "Tomorrow's warfare will depend on intelligence collection and transmission and we are concentrating on that. We'll also develop stealth technology for UAVs," he added.

"A key technology for UAVs to perform their intended mission is autonomy. All operational UAVs worldwide operate at level three of autonomy, equipped to adapt the mission to failure in flight and atmospheric conditions. With level 4, the most critical technology is to impart 360-degree situational awareness to an unmanned system which will enable it to replan the mission in reaction to threats and targets," he said.

ADE director PS Krishnan said Rustom-2 would be India's equivalent to US's drones and will be flight tested by 2015. They will have flight endurance of 24 hours and stay afloat for 24 hours. He said for Rustom-2, the government has allocated Rs 1,540 crore for development of the UAV and for building a test range at Chitradurga.

Army pilots have taken the lead in being trained on simulators and actual test flights of Rustom-1, which was developed earlier last year on a technology demonstration basis. These pilots have already taken Rustom-1 on 10 test flights.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kailash »

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Murugan »

X posted from Nukkad

One Dr Vijay Kumar has developed quadrotor robots. Claims he had flown 20 such quadrotors in tight formation only few inches apart of one another.

Will render UAVs useless ET reports.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... nsors-uavs
The Nano Quad is a quadrotor, a helicopter with four rotors whose speeds are precisely controlled by microcontrollers 600 times per second to produce just the right lift, roll, pitch and yaw. Onboard sensors allow it to sense its attitude and respond with remarkable agility. In fact, it can perform a 360 degree flip in less than half a second with angular rates approach 2000 degrees per second.
More:

http://singularityhub.com/2012/03/08/fl ... -ted-2012/
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Indranil »

^^^ Ya, has gone quite viral:

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by akimalik »

I just read on another forum that Rustom MALE version has had a test flight.
Any other confirmations?
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