Misplaced Priority

Atul Chandra

Military technology has advanced by leaps and bounds since the late 2000’s bringing about with it an age of disruption, with the emergence of relatively inexpensive and low-cost precision Loitering Munitions (LM) and suicide drones allowing pin-point engagement of targets in a manner simply not possible before.

STM Kargu is a Turkish Rotary-Wing Attack Drone

While such weapons remain susceptible to enemy air defences when operating in highly contested environments, there is no doubt that they will play in an important role in any future conflict.

Investments in these drone-based weapons has allowed countries like China, Turkey and Israel to leapfrog western competition which still remains focussed on larger and more expensive conventional missile armament delivered from combat aircraft. Despite its impressive and growing indigenous capability in the development of missile armament, India is yet to announce any major indigenous LM or suicide drone projects. This is a matter of concern as both China and Turkey, who are close military allies with Pakistan are now far advanced with their own home-grown programmes for loitering munitions and suicide drones.

Outsourcing Capability

The inability of the large Indian defence industrial complex comprising the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and defence public sector undertakings (DPSU) such as HAL, BEL, etc to develop indigenous LM and suicide drones is puzzling.

This is even more puzzling when one considers indigenous programmes for manufacture of advanced fighters, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, all of which are far more expensive and technologically more complex. At the very least, India’s close defence partnership with Israel should have resulted in a decision to manufacture significant quantities of LMs under license, while indigenous efforts came to fruition. At present, apart from smaller procurements of imported LM such as the Israel Aerospace Industries’ Harpy and Harop, there does not appear to be a concerted effort to induct larger quantities of such drone-based munitions for the armed and paramilitary forces.

In 2020, several joint ventures (JV) were announced for manufacture of LM in India, but formal contracts are yet to be announced. Among the promising JVs for manufacture of loitering munitions in India, include the ALPHA-ELSEC between Bengaluru based Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd (ADTL) and Elbit Systems for the SkyStriker and the Avision JV between Aditya Precitech and UVision Air for manufacture Precision Attack Loitering Munition (PALM) Hero Systems.

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SkyStriker is a fully autonomous LM which can undertake long-range precise tac