UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

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Rakesh
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Rakesh »

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vivek_ahuja
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by vivek_ahuja »

As far as we know, this accomplishment by the Rustom-II is actually the only MALE in Indian service that has a deployed capability like this. I believe the Searcher and Herons have the ability to do this, but were not procured by Indian services with that equipment. So the Rustom-II is breaking new ground on that front in India.

Question is, will the Rustom-II enable the end of Searcher and Heron class of imported UAVs?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by fanne »

Searcher and Heron are the birds in hand, while the Rustom is one in the bush. Once it is in hand (it has been in the bush for more than a decade, every time tantalizing close) and as capable as Searcher/Heron, it can and will certainly replace the imported birds. Btw latest is that we are adding sat capability on existing Herons. Perhaps some A/G capability as well (if you believe in the press reports).
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by vivek_ahuja »

fanne wrote:Searcher and Heron are the birds in hand, while the Rustom is one in the bush. Once it is in hand (it has been in the bush for more than a decade, every time tantalizing close) and as capable as Searcher/Heron, it can and will certainly replace the imported birds.
And with that attitude from the customer, the situation will never change. The project will remain underfunded because import options are constantly available (and "in hand") and this argument will be used until the program is shuttered as a technology demonstration.

I guarantee that if the UAV import program suffered from the same restrictions like the ballistic missile program did, we would have deployed the Rustom-II in squadron numbers already.
fanne wrote:Btw latest is that we are adding sat capability on existing Herons.
That's nice. So the Heron was imported without this capability and inducted into operations and nobody complained. But the Rustom-II has to demonstrate this capability right from the get-go for it to become "in hand".
fanne wrote:Perhaps some A/G capability as well
I seriously doubt this. My bold claim is that DRDO UAVs will become armed faster than imported ones outside of imported suicide drones and loitering munitions.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by fanne »

vivek_ahuja wrote:
And with that attitude from the customer, the situation will never change. The project will remain underfunded because import options are constantly available (and "in hand") and this argument will be used until the program is shuttered as a technology demonstration.

I guarantee that if the UAV import program suffered from the same restrictions like the ballistic missile program did, we would have deployed the Rustom-II in squadron numbers already.
I think it is the other way around. The UAV work at DRDO has taken 15 years and they still do not have anything beyond a TD (if that). It is painfully slooow. In the mean time chinese have produced over 100 variants and turkey is successfully fielded many variants.

fanne wrote:Perhaps some A/G capability as well
I seriously doubt this. My bold claim is that DRDO UAVs will become armed faster than imported ones outside of imported suicide drones and loitering munitions.[/quote]

I hope so. IMHO, their is an unsaid rule to not provide India with armed UAV. Armed Imported UAV (not the kamikaze type) news have been appearing for years without any imports materializing. They can work wonders in JK and other insurgency prone areas (un contested airspace), not to say during armed conflict they can come in handy.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by vivek_ahuja »

fanne wrote:
vivek_ahuja wrote:I guarantee that if the UAV import program suffered from the same restrictions like the ballistic missile program did, we would have deployed the Rustom-II in squadron numbers already.
I think it is the other way around. The UAV work at DRDO has taken 15 years and they still do not have anything beyond a TD (if that). It is painfully slooow. In the mean time chinese have produced over 100 variants and turkey is successfully fielded many variants.
Could you list out the scale of funding that was provided to the Chinese companies/agencies working on their UAV programs and compare it with the funding provided to the DRDO to do the same? What about the scale of funding behind General Atomics and their different programs?

If you could create a table showing these numbers, it would really help solidify your claim of painfully slow Indian development. Also, perhaps you could highlight the years when the funding was initiated. That would really show how slow the DRDO program is!
fanne wrote:I hope so. IMHO, their is an unsaid rule to not provide India with armed UAV. Armed Imported UAV (not the kamikaze type) news have been appearing for years without any imports materializing.
And it will stay that way forever until the Rustom II launches a standoff AGM in the next few years (or less).
fanne wrote:They can work wonders in JK and other insurgency prone areas (un contested airspace), not to say during armed conflict they can come in handy.
Indian armed drones will never find usage inside Indian territory outside of ISR. Political issue onlee. And one I agree with, IMHO.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Indranil »

JayS wrote:ADE has put up a tender for WT model of flying wing UAV with wingspan 5.0m, length 4.0m and height 0.631m. Which one might that be..? Any bright ideas..? Ghatak..?
One more tender has come out now. This time for the manufacture of the actual airframe. It is not UAVTD/Swift. It has a vertical tail. It has me completely stumped. No horizontal tail, relatively high aspect ratio wing with 2 elevons and 2 spoilers per wing!!!

It weighs between 250-500 kg. Seems slightly smaller than Panchi but has retractable landing gear with steerable nose wheel. Is powered by a turbojet with mid fuselage intakes. Operational ceiling may be as high as 20,000 mtrs !!!!! Telemetry range: 100 kms.

Seems like a TD for a HALE.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Bharadwaj »

This is truly a momentous day for indigenous military aviation

From Livefist
https://www.livefistdefence.com/2021/01 ... forge.html

Indian Army Hands Landmark $20-Mil Deal To Indian Drone-maker IdeaForge
In what can only be interpreted as the Indian Army choosing to closing the door firmly on foreign drone products that were inbound to meet a basic long-standing infantry requirement at high altitudes, the Indian Army has just awarded a landmark $20 million (nearly ₹130 crore) contract to Indian drone maker ideaForge for an undisclosed number of its SWITCH tactical drones for use by infantry troops and special forces deployed at high altitudes.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Zynda »

Indranil wrote:
JayS wrote:ADE has put up a tender for WT model of flying wing UAV with wingspan 5.0m, length 4.0m and height 0.631m. Which one might that be..? Any bright ideas..? Ghatak..?
One more tender has come out now. This time for the manufacture of the actual airframe. It is not UAVTD/Swift. It has a vertical tail. It has me completely stumped. No horizontal tail, relatively high aspect ratio wing with 2 elevons and 2 spoilers per wing!!!

It weighs between 250-500 kg. Seems slightly smaller than Panchi but has retractable landing gear with steerable nose wheel. Is powered by a turbojet with mid fuselage intakes. Operational ceiling may be as high as 20,000 mtrs !!!!! Telemetry range: 100 kms.

Seems like a TD for a HALE.
IR, would it be possible for you to post links to the tender?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Indranil »

No. It is not possible to do so the way the eprocurement site works. The links are reachable only after a captcha and become stale within a few minutes.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Zynda »

I give up on the e-procurement site. Searched many ways to find ADE tenders but they ain't just coming up. Sadly, the site tenders are not indexed or searchable in Google search either.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Kakkaji »

Indian Army officer develops 'microcopter' for tracking terrorists inside buildings
New Delhi: An Indian Army officer has indigenously developed a 'microcopter' which can be used by the Army to carry out surveillance inside a building or room in which terrorists are hiding.

The microcopter has been developed by Lieutenant Colonel GYK Reddy.

The trials of the microcomputer have been successfully carried out by a Para Special Forces battalion in Jammu and Kashmir and further improvements are being carried out on the micro drone.

Indian Army has signed a contract for acquiring the Switch drone for surveillance along the borders. The vertical take off and landing drone has the capability to fly for two hours at a maximum altitude of 4,500 metres, according to Mohit Bansal, Idea Forge. The firm had also developed the Netra drone a few years ago with DRDO.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by kit »

fanne wrote: as capable as Searcher/Heron, it can and will certainly replace the imported birds. Btw latest is that we are adding sat capability on existing Herons. Perhaps some A/G capability as well (if you believe in the press reports).
that would make it a Predator equivalent., i dont think those Turkish drones have that capability !
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Vips »

Indian Army gets ready for 'swarm' drone attacks.

The Indian Army has enhanced its drone capabilities, inducting 75 indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can also be used for combat missions to target enemy positions.

The combat drones that were part of the 'swarm technology' display at the Army Day Parade on January 15 have been inducted in phases since August 2020, boosting army's surveillance capabilities and also bringing in an element of surprise to carry out targeted strikes to assist troops on the ground.

Initially, only five of these drones were bought in August 2020 but in the last few months, as tensions escalated with China in Ladakh and spiking ceasefire violations by Pakistan at the Line of Control (LoC), more of these were purchased, officials said.

What are swarm drones?
The drones being unleashed in a bunch is a tactic called swarm drone technology. Not only are these drones light weighted and low cost but the high-tech artificial intelligence enables these to be crucial in future warfare.

Swarm drones can create havoc as it is part of deception warfare with radars or air defence systems often unable to pick up the multiple drones but see it as one big object.

The technology is used worldwide. In 2018, two Russian military bases were attacked using swarm drones in Russia.

Drone formations such as these employed to take down multiple targets simultaneously are often referred to as "Kamikaze missions". Drones are expected to play a huge role in future wars; recently what we saw in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Drones offer highly stealthy capabilities that can be matched with very few other devices. It was the go-to option for the Iranians when they planned an attack on Saudi's Abqaiq oil facilities in 2019. The Iranians targeted the oil facilities with delta wing drones apart from other long-range missiles, but it was these drones that did the most damage. The most damning fact of this attack was that the targets were all hit by drone attacks launched from Saudi territory, possibly inside the range of Saudi air defences.

With a range of 50 km, these drones can make deep inroads behind enemy lines with a capability to hit targets from a distance of 500 metres. The UAV has a mother drone that has an attached child drone meant to fire and self-destroy after hitting the target.

These drones were out on a public display as the Indian Army carried out a live demonstration of Drone Swarming capability using 75 indigenously designed and developed drones which executed an array of Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled simulated offensive missions and close support tasks during the Army Day Parade held at Delhi Cantt on Friday.

"This demonstration is recognition of the Indian Army's steady embrace of emerging and disruptive technologies to transform itself from a manpower-intensive to a technology-enabled force to meet future security challenges. The Indian Army is investing heavily into Artificial Intelligence (AI), Autonomous Weapon Systems, Quantum Technologies, Robotics, Cloud Computing and Algorithm Warfare in order to achieve a convergence between the Army's warfighting philosophies and military attributes of these technologies," Indian Army said in a statement.

These drones carry out automated, randomised sonic missions to the target area with the use of artificial intelligence and onboard adaptive computers. It is driven by continuous satellite feeds.

These drones can also be pressed into action for airdropping food, medicine, ammunition or any other essential needs for soldiers in forward locations cut away from supply lines.

The Indian Army has undertaken a wide array of technology initiatives in coordination with Dreamers, Startups, MSMEs, Private Sector, Academia, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).

One such project is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Offensive Drone Operations which has been incubated with an Indian start-up. This project symbolises the beginning of the Indian Army's tryst with autonomy in weapon platforms and showcases the Army's commitment towards merging the cutting-edge of digital technologies with its human resource, the army said.

These are not the only drone technologies Indian Army is looking to procure indigenously. Recently the army ordered more than 100 drones costing around Rs 140 crore for high-altitude areas. These are aimed at enhancing surveillance capabilities at more than 15,000 feet just like the friction areas of the current India-China standoff in Ladakh.



Check from 0:50 to 1:45

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by shaun »

75 drones have payload capacity of 650 kgs
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by kit »

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Rishi_Tri »

Army Day celebrations on 15th Jan'21: Longer Drone Swarm demonstration video. Included -

Swarm of 75 drones
Autonomous drone functioning
Reconnaissance, Med Evac and Armed drones
Drones identified targets
Armed drones dropped charges that destroyed the targets
One of the armed drones also had what looks like a cannon / gun.

All this means Indian Army drones shall be serving Hakka Noodles to the Chini Bhais. :D



https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2021/ ... rfare.html
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by sanjaykumar »

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambl ... 5909162384
A good article that makes the point these were live fire exercises in the proximity of attendees at the function.

Remarkable.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by sanjaykumar »

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... 498671.cms


Plans to use drones as loitering munitions carried by Jaguar deep strike aircraft. Interesting possibilities over Tibet spring to mind.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by fanne »

Jags at that height?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by sanjaykumar »

They have been reported at Leh/Srinagar.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by A Deshmukh »

sanjaykumar wrote: Plans to use drones as loitering munitions carried by Jaguar deep strike aircraft. Interesting possibilities over Tibet spring to mind.
can they be carried by Hawk-i?
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Manish_P »

Is this website a reliable source?

Ghatak UCAV To Use Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Tech
It was hardly reported in the media that Ghatak UCAV will be using fluidic thrust vectoring technology, which may enable it to do away with any moving parts.

How Fluidic Thrust Works?

Fluidic thrust Vectoring is a thrust Vectoring technique employs general fluid phenomena of wall attachment and stream interaction in specially designed devices to perform the functions of sensing, logic and control. Wall attachment is a phenomenon of jet fluid to get physically attracted towards a surface and deviate from it’s path.

The jet fluid will follow an adjacent surface’s shape as it’s director. Stream interaction is a phenomenon where two streams of fluid having different angular directions, can influence each other for changing their directions.

In an aircraft the main stream would be exhausts of an engine , if a small stream is passed over it from annular nozzles located around the main stream. This can influence change in direction.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Bharadwaj »

HAL Wingman UAV

Hopefully the rhona dhona about lack of uav development will stop :mrgreen:

:eek: :eek: :eek:

https://twitter.com/ReviewVayu

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Indranil »

ADE's time is running out fast. If it can't nail ATOL quickly, others will. Very soon!
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IIT Kanpur
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A 4 kg light helicopter has been developed by #IITKanpur incubated company #EndureAir Pvt Ltd which will participate in Aero-India 2021 to be held in Bangaluru.

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Rakesh »

Warrior, Hunter and ALFA: Meet India's lethal drone arsenal of the future
https://newsable.asianetnews.com/galler ... vpn-qnyp3s
03 Feb 2021
Explaining the CATS, Group Captain HV Thakur (Retd), in-charge of CATS said, "It is based on the concept of a loyal wingman of teams which carry out the operations on the enemy. Once developed, it can replace an aircraft in the formation or be attached to LCA Tejas initially."
Weighing about 1.5 tonnes, the Warrior is an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle which will fly as a wingman and will pack lethal ammunition to neutralize the target. Being operated from a mothership, the Warrior will decrease the risk element as it will lead the manned formation, giving a live feed of the target area.
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by sooraj »

Vayu Aerospace Review
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New from Adani Aerospace...the cannister launched SkyStriker UAV

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

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Varun Karthikeyan
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Bionic Robotic Fish Propelled by Shape Memory Alloy Actuators developed by IIT Indore.

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Post by sooraj »

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BREAKING: MoD/IAF to announce CATS Infinity high altitude pseudo satellite as an iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) project tomorrow at #AeroIndia2021. Collaborative effort between HAL & startup New Space Research & Tech.

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Neela »


20-30 kg payload
5500 M altitude.
Defualt version comes with EO payload.
Can be used for surveillance.
1 year away from first flight.


20-30kg seems low / ineffiecient. Not sure why this was made the target capacity. In another video, HAL did talk about commercial logistics options. So 100kg payload would have given it a twin role between ferry role (civilian/military) & additional hours of surveillance
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Prem Kumar »

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/drdos-rus ... s-in-april

Good to know that they're showing a sense or urgency. All the best!
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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by Prasad »

Posted this in the missile thread for some reason. A short chat on CATS with Grp Capt HarshVardhan.

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Re: UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Post by nash »

About wingman warrior :

Speed: 0.95Mach
Internal payload:250Kg (SAAW,ALFA)
External payload:250Kg(SAAW,NGCCM,Fuel)
Total weight: ~1.5 tonne.
AESA Radar.

A fighter can carry upto 4 warrior, I think this many number cannot be possible with Tejas, may be with Su-30 and Rafale.

Hunter:
I am not sure about the feasibility of recovery of this drone via parachute, if landing surface is rough than it can be permanently damaged.

All of these can give a fighter like Tejas a sixth generation capability.
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Post by VinodTK »

ThePrint: Navy, Army and IAF finally agree to procure armed drones from US in $3 bn deal
New Delhi: Impressed with the performance of the two leased Sea Guardian drones, the Navy, Army and the Air Force will finally jointly procure 30 armed versions of the American unmanned aerial system in what could be a $3 billion deal, ThePrint has learnt.

The decision comes just before US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to India later this month. Austin’s visit could be a precursor to the impending meet of the ‘Quad’ leaders — US, India, Australia and Japan — which is likely to be held soon.

ccording to sources in the defence and security establishment, initially one of the three services were not on board about procuring the armed predator drones but now all three are finally on the same page.

They added that the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh-led Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) could take a final decision on this “soon”.

If approved, this would be the first tri-service procurement since Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat was appointed to steer the Indian armed forces into a more united force, both in terms of operational doctrine and procurement.
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Post by AkshaySG »


Massive if true , Although I hope this means US and Biden shutting the **** about CAATSA and S400 .

Its surprising how quickly we manage to scrounge up Billions of $ for foreign deals while LCH et al have to wait for months for even a paltry order due to budget concerns .
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