Aditya Kakkar

The armed forces have identified the need for Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and Systems in the ministry of defence’s ‘Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap-2018’ to provide the industry with an overview of the country’s offensive and defensive military requirements. It provides to the industry an overview of equipment that is envisaged to be inducted into the armed forces up to the late 2020s. UAVs are major force multipliers in modern-day warfare for real-time surveillance as well as hitting high-value enemy targets. The armed forces currently have over 200 drones with the bulk of them imported from Israel.

Rustom 2 MALE UAV

The army and navy need 100-150 Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) RPA with an expected lifecycle of 15-20 years which should be capable of undertaking the task of search and reconnaissance of area as well as moving targets, artillery adjustment, urban security, combat SAR, coastal and maritime patrol, disaster control and protection of facilities. It should be able to operate around 30,000 feet or above while its endurance should be more than 24 hrs with SAR and EO/IR payloads. The maximum range should be more than 250 Km in LOS mode and payloads to include maritime radar, ESM, ELINT, ECCM, COMINT, EO/IR, and SATCOM link.

The document also lays out the navy’s requirement of High-Altitude long-range RPAs (more than 20), vertical take-off and landing RPAs (25-30), and ship-borne (more than 50 systems, with each system having 3 RPAs). The navy also needs 10 submarine launched RPAs. The Indian army on the other hand needs 50 short range RPA, 30 hybrid RPAs, and 55-70 stealth RPAs. The army and navy have also jointly demanded more than