Going Unmanned

Atul Chandra

The Indian Army is modernising at a far slower pace than desirable and is also grappling with what appears to be an insurmountable challenge in reducing its manpower. With an estimated 12,37,000 active troops, the Indian Army is one of the world’s largest standing armies and also has 8,00,000 reserve troops. It is also the largest standing volunteer army in the world. While there could be some comfort in these numbers, the fact of the matter is that most militaries the world over are downsizing to fund their modernisation priorities.

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) are an emerging defence technology which can meet the twin priorities of modernising the armed forces while also allowing for a reduced manpower count. It will allow a greater proportion of troops to be utilised in combat-facing roles and enhance the army’s ‘teeth to tail’ ratio.

Milrem Robotics Themis UGV

The Indian Army presently needs greater numbers of UGVs which can undertake unmanned autonomous capturing of intelligence, surveillance and delivery of loads/casualty evacuation, etc. The army’s armoured and mechanised infantry units currently employ vehicle-based Doppler radars and handheld thermal imaging (TI) sights manned by three to four personnel, for surveillance of the enemy.

Even for tasks such as casualty evacuation and immediate replenishment of ammunition/ fuel to individual armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) the army presently uses wheeled unprotected vehicles manned by a crew of four. These manned vehicles also have a large size and silhouette and thus are easily detected by the adversary or are deployed at standoff distances. Replacing these vehicles in their entirety with UGVs by 2035, should be undertaken on a war footing.

Unmanned Future

The Indian Army has announced plans for the induction of unmanned autonomous systems, but this has led to a proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) whereas the development of UGV technology has been slow. This can chiefly be attributed to a lack of user awareness on the performance and capability of current-gen military UGVs.

However, the Indian Army is now actively exploring integrating UGVs into its operations for various purposes, including reconnaissance, surveillance and logistics support but is yet to put out specific details about the types and numbers of UGVs it requires for various purposes.

The Army does operate an unknown number of