Remote Surveillance

India’s requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles and remotely piloted aircraft is growing at a rapid pace.

- C Santhosh

The Indian armed and paramilitary forces are rapidly expanding their Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) capabilities to meet existing and emerging requirements for a wide variety of missions. The promise of large future orders from the Indian armed and paramilitary forces and state police forces have also resulted in the rapid growth in the development of UAV and RPA platforms in the country. Currently the Indian armed forces operate a mix of UAVs sourced mainly from Israel and some other countries, which are mainly used for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Within a few years from now there will be a greater shift towards use of armed UAVs and acquisition of more sophisticated sensor payloads, delivering a dramatically enhanced capability over existing UAVs and RPAs.

Future requirements

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently released the much awaited second edition of its future technology roadmap called Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap – 2018 (TPCR2018). The first edition of the TPCR was published in Apr 2013 and the new roadmap provides a guide as to the type of equipment that is envisaged to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces upto the late 2020s. UAV and RPAs of all categories are an important part of the future roadmap for the armed forces and when combined with Indian Government’s thrust towards ‘Make in India’, it is likely to start a boom period for sales of unmanned vehicles in India for the military and paramilitary market.