Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly becoming the futuristic devices to watch. They are employed in a variety of military roles and their civilian use is also on the rise. Following the spectacular success of US and Israeli unmanned missions, militaries across the globe are eagerly adding these useful “toys” to their arsenals. The Indian armed forces too have long appreciated the worth of UAVs, but acquisition plans have lagged. Most systems currently available are procured from Israel. Last year the country ordered 15 Heron medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAVs manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), to add to the 25 existing such systems that are being upgraded with better communication equipment and sensors. The three services also have around 100 Israeli Searcher II tactical surveillance UAVs.

India’s market for UAVs is potentially huge and a number of private firms seem eager to participate in development and production of new machines. Apart from subassemblies, major subsystems like sensors and engines are already being obtained from private suppliers. However, it is the public sector Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and its key aeronautical systems design house, the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), that are in the forefront of efforts to develop indigenous military UAV capability.

Eye-in-the-Sky Netra

Netra, for instance, is a lightweight, autonomous mini-UAV meant for surveillance and reconnaissance. It was jointly developed by DRDO’s ADE and ideaForge, a Mumbai-based private company. It is made of carbon fibre composites. Since it weighs just 1.5 kg, it is portable enough to be carried in a backpack. It requires hardly any maintenance because it has no moving parts except rotors, motors and transmissions. It has quadruple rotors that provide vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability and control. Once launched, it can climb to its operating altitude of 200 metres to 300 metres and fly a distance of about 2.5 km from the take-off point.

Netra is electrically powered and a single charge keeps it airborne for about 30 minutes. Its flight and navigation is controlled by an onboard autopilot with the help of anti-collision sensors. It automatically flies to the location specified on the ground. It can carry out surveillance at a distance of about 1.5 km line of light (LOS), using a high resolution CCD camera with pan/tilt and zoom features to enable wider coverage. It can also carry a thermal camera for night operations. However, it cannot operate in rain. In case of loss of communication or if the battery is running low, Netra automatically returns to its launch position. It has been inducted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other paramilitary and police forces in the country.

Airborne at Dawn: Nishant

Nishant is another ADE-designed UAV for military use. Its primary roles are intelligence, reconnaissance, training, surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, damage assessment and Electronic and Signals Intelligence (ELINT/SIGINT). It is rail-launched from a hydro-pneumatic launcher and recovered by parachute, thus eliminating the need for a runway. The Nishant weighs 380 kg and with a cruising speed of 125 to 150 kmph, it has an operational range of 160 km and can remain airborne for four-and-a-half hours. Its service ceiling is 3,600 metres. The Nishant has completed the development phase as well as user trials and is under induction by the Indian Army.

Remarkable Rustom

But the Rustom UAV is where DRDO/ADE may enter the big league later this year. The Rustom is a family of UAVs that is intended to be the mainstay of the three services, supplementing or even replacing the imported Heron.

The Rustom story began in the 1980s when a team from the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), India’s second largest aerospace firm, under the leadership of Professor Rustom Damania, developed the Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA). The LCRA was inspired by Burt Rutan’s Model 61 Long-EZ, a homebuilt aircraft with a canard plan form. The first model to emerge was the Rustom-I, an all-composite tactical surveillance UAV, based on the LCRA. It is designed for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and designation, communications relay, battle damage assessment and ELINT/SIGINT. It is powered by a single 160 horsepower Lycoming engine and may have an endurance of up to 12 hours. The aircraft cruises at 80 to 100 knots and has a maximum speed of 190 knots. It is designed to be externally piloted but may also feature autonomous take-off and landing. It has completed over 30 test flights. The DRDO is currently embarked on producing ten such systems at a cost of about $350 million, with production slated to be completed by 2017. If all goes well, the Rustom-I may soon be able to carry the Helina missile, the airlaunched version of the Nag anti-tank missile. This would make the Rustom-I India’s first armed UAV.

The Rustom-H is a larger MALE surveillance UAV, with a much higher range and service ceiling as compared to Rustom-I. It has two engines and an endurance of over 24 hours. It bears no resemblance to the Rustom-I. However, the DRDO’s main near-term hope for unmanned glory rests on the Rustom-II, a MALE UAV. Its initial role will be surveillance but it will ultimately morph into an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), similar to the American Predator, with a great deal of mission flexibility. It has a conventional undercarriage and needs a runway for take-off and landing. It has a wingspan of 21 metres, a potential endurance of 24 to 30 hours and a payload of 350 kg. It has a ceiling of almost ten km. The DRDO is aiming for a world-class system that can perform various roles like intelligence gathering, border surveillance, target information and communications. The UAV is designed to carry a variety of optical and electronic sensors and each of the three services may get a configuration most suited to its needs. An indigenous Ku-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is to commence flight trials shortly. Rustom-II, however, has suffered from lack of access to technology for sensors and engines and is running a little behind schedule. Its first flight is now expected in the next few months, probably this year and it is expected to be ready for induction by 2017.

Creating an AURA

Preliminary work has also begun on the Indian unmanned strike air vehicle (IUSAV) earlier known as autonomous unmanned research aircraft (AURA). The IUSAV will be a stealthy system, capable of internal carriage and release of precision-guided munitions (PGMs). This programme is classified and is still in its project definition stage. It will be a flying wing design, built mainly with composites and will have radar absorbent paint, serpentine air intakes and turbofan engines. A non-afterburning derivative of the long-delayed GTRE Kaveri is mentioned as its likely powerplant. The IUSAV will also have encrypted data-link and advanced sensors. Dassault Aviation, Saab and BAE Systems are potential partners in this extremely complex and ambitious programme. The ADE is working towards its maiden flight in 2015-16 and first deliveries by 2020.

Flying to the Future

Apart from the models mentioned above, DRDO’s Lakshya-1 high-speed pilotless target aircraft has been in use by the defence services for many years. Now an improved version Lakshya-2, capable of flying in sea-skimming mode at a height of about 15 metres and at treetop level over land, is ready for induction. The DRDO is also developing a low-cost expendable aerial target system known as Abhyas.

Indeed, the DRDO is working on a range of unmanned aircraft and they are in various stages of development from the design concept onwards. Among them, there is the short-range Pawan, the Gagan tactical UAV and a Naval Rotary UAV (NRUAV), being developed in collaboration with IAI. The NRUAV is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) UAV, based on a Chetak helicopter platform, which can loiter for about six hours at a distance of 120 km from the launch ship. Also on the cards is a solar-powered UAV that can remain airborne for as long as 15 days. Then there’s the NAL SlyBird hand launched mini-unmanned air vehicle (MAV) as well as a national competition for micro air vehicles (MICAV), part of the Rs. 100-crore national programme on MICAV to be held for the second time this year.

UAV operators the world over are beginning to realise that the best results come from first-rate sensors and that the cost of sensors may equal the cost of the UAV itself. Light, compact and powerful sensors are necessary to equip smaller UAVs to perform almost as well as the larger ones. Militaries with growing UAV fleets are also facing shortages of skilled UAV operators. It would help if India’s three services set up a joint training centre where specially selected trainees can be introduced to UAVs.

India’s UAV needs are large and growing. There is already a demand-supply imbalance. The Indian Army alone reportedly has plans to acquire about 1,500 systems over the next three or four years, ranging from mini and micro systems to MALE and HALE (high altitude) UAVs. Small UAVs are particularly useful to provide commanders a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield so they can move their troops into the fight with authentic information of the enemy’s location, capability and intentions. The Indian Air Force and Indian Navy also need MALE and HALE surveillance UAVs and UCAVs. In addition, the Indian Navy would prefer to have rotary UAVs that can be launched and recovered even from small ships.

The DRDO and other agencies need to speed up efforts to prevent the country becoming permanently dependent on foreign suppliers of UAVs. However, the public sector’s track record in designing, developing and producing modern aircraft and weapon systems of cutting-edge technology is hardly inspiring, with several current programmes being high on promise and low on delivery. But when it comes to UAVs, the gap with the advanced countries is not so great that it cannot be bridged. All it needs is adequate levels of investment, determination and effort. With these, one can hope that the DRDO would be able to deliver.