Indian Government must fund indigenous development of UAVs by IITs. This was recently shared by Lt. General P. Ravi Shankar, Indian Army.

DRDO’s long range multi-mission drone, Rustom-2 has been under development since 2011, even after realizing multiple airframes and Design Validation Flights (DVF) by 2017 itself, there have been delays to meet the User’s requirements. As per CAG report of 2018, the non-availability of critical UAV system has adversely affected the aerial surveillance capability of the Indian Army.

UCAVs are UAVs capable to launch missiles, bombs and precision-guided munition. UCAVs are effectively used world over for Search and Attack role, safeguarding own soldier’s from risks. Its an area that has picked up in the last few years, it is not capital intensive, and it has found extensive usage in military and civil surveillance.

With the usage of UAVs and UCAVs there has been a paradigm shift in the way the modern wars are fought. During the War on Terror, the United States has increasingly utilised drones against the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in a number of locations such as Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is particularly the case in areas where American forces could not operate overtly on the ground. Earlier the major investments had been made by the countries in acquiring fighter jets. However with the increase costs in Fighter Jets, every country cannot afford to divert precious foreign exchange reserves in acquiring the Fighter Jets from the other development needs in the country. That puts the countries defence at risk as well.

Recent Armenia-Azerbaijan war brought forward the need for armed drones in winning the wars. Azerbaijan used the Turkish as well as Israeli drones to take out the targets in the conflicted region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Reportedly, the drones used by Baku were Turkish made Bayraktar TB2 and Israeli Harops. Another deadly drone, Israeli Harops, also known as ‘suicide’ or ‘kamikaze’ drones, “proved themselves very effective in the conflict region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Even China that has threatened its neighbors, is the biggest exporter of UAV drones. Pakistan is also getting these drones from China.

However the cheaper alternatives are the drones, the UAVs and the UCAVs. There are different kind of drones.

India is already facing a war like situation with China and Pakistan. Both the countries has working drones.

Related Article India Building War Reserves In A Big Way

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is preparing to acquire 30 General Atomics MQ-9B Guardian drones from the United States, in a deal valued at approximately $3 billion (Rs 22,000 crore). A recent series of meetings within the MoD have cleared the way for the procurement of an initial lot of six Reaper Medium Altitude Long Endurance drones. These six drones—two each for the army, navy and air force—are to be procured immediately from the US, indicating the urgency of the acquisition. The contract is being broken up into two parts—six MQ-9s worth approximately $600 million (Rs 4,400 crore) are to be purchased outright and delivered in the next few months. The remaining 24—eight drones for each service—will be acquired over the next three years under an ‘option clause’ in the contract.

However all the drones India has acquired in the past and are in service of Indian Armed forces are all imported.

Defence Research and Development Organization DRDO’s long range multi-mission drone, Rustam-1 program failed and was rejected by Indian Army. Its Rustom-2 has been under development since 2011, even after realizing multiple airframes and Design Validation Flights (DVF) by 2017 itself, there have been delays to meet the User’s requirements. So far DRDO has failed to deliver a working UAV/UCAV to Indian Armed forces. As per CAG report of 2018, the non-availability of critical UAV system has adversely affected the aerial surveillance capability of the Indian Army. However still huge funds are being pumped into the program with no results so far.

Overall, the armed forces are still dependent on import of UAVs for operational missions, and is spending dollars for maintenance like spares, AMCs signed with the OEMs etc. as India has not been able to manufacture any indigenous UAVs.

India has a great working experience in operating drones since last 2 decades.

In India specifically, the technology development sector used by the Armed Drones had been monopolized by Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO. Before the current government in India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over, DRDO was starved of funds for technology development by previous governments. However Indian Prime Minister launched several programs including Startup-India and Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and started funding Indias top Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO.

However Indian Defence experts believe that Technology Development should not be the monopoly of Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO alone. There are a lot of premier institutes in India like IIT Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur and Bombay that have courses on Aerospace and are working on UAV and UCAV programs.

The Aerospace course is also taught to undergraduates at IIT Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur and Bombay, Students and Research Professors have more opportunities to develop working UAVs for Indian Armed Forces. Research Professors at IIT-Madras have experience of working in foreign countries for 10-15 years and they have come back to India only for the purpose of contributing to their motherland. Many of the students at IIT-Madras and other IITs in India are working in the facilities of Airbus and Boeing, doing cutting edge work.

However these premier institutes like IIT Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur and Bombay are denied proper funding in research and development of new technologies.

In a recent Interview with the Print, Lt. General P. Ravi Shankar who headed the Artillery forces of Indian Army and now a Professor, Aerospace department, IIT Madras told that IIT-Madras is working on 2 UAVs. First is a 25 Kg light weight Drone that can carry a ammunition payload of 5kg and the other is a 50 Kg UAV that can carry an ammunition payload of 10 Kg. IIT Madras is developing UAVs with a range of 100 km and six hours endurance. They will scale it up to long endurance UAVs. Besides that they are working on loitering suicide drones that are made of plastic and can be used by Indian Army to blow the enemy positions. These drones when manufactured would cost India 1/10th of the cost of similar drones that are imported from other countries.

He emphasized that the technology developed for UAV at IIT-Madras is Indian Technology and they need to invest on Technology. Once the technology matures, they can make any kind of drones. However at this stage when their UAV development program is at an advanced stage, they need Indian Government support and funding.

The point highlighted by Lt. General P. Ravi Shankar was that, IIT-Madras has been working on a shoe string budget and has been denied any funding by Indian Government. Defence Research and Development Organization DRDO has categorically told that DRDO does not want IITs to work on UAV programs and as such denied all kind of funding. IIT-Madras approached Indian Army, Indian Airforce, however when the question of funding came, they all backed off.

Speaking about the drones developed by IIT-Madras Lt General P. Ravi Shankar said that they are using Indian made Engines made by an Indian company UMS Technologies that is already supplying engines to German low end drones. However IIT-Madras has taken these engines and developed them to get higher performance, propulsion and long endurance. He said that the biggest cost in any UAV is the Engine and the Multi-mission Optronic Stabilized Payload (MOSP). Here the Engines being used are made in India and redesigned and upgraded by IIT-Madras and their partner engine manufacturing company can deliver any kind of engines as per their specifications.

He further said, We have next generation payloads also. Most of the UAVs today come with normal payload Multi-mission Optronic Stabilized Payload (MOSP) for day and night camera multi spectral photography and is very heavy in weight and very costly system. However the IIT-Madras innovation in UAV does not use MOSP. Instead they are using the latest next generation digital technology in digital cameras with image intensification enhancement digitally. Using low grade camera and use the technology to enhance the images on ground which means the heavy payloads are out. That is the reason the IIT-Madras designed and developed UAV’s cost will come down besides the weight also gets reduced as the heavy payload is not being used.

Except the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) all parts of UAV are being made in India.

One is carbon reinforced fiber plastic and the other is disposable low grade plastic. It can be used as a disposable drone for armed suicide drones. So even the body of the UAV is cheap. It can be converted in loitering/rail launched or runway run UAV. The costs will be very low. Since these are based on Indian Technology, they can be manufactured in large quantities an can be used in the event of a war or armed conflicts.

Lt General P. Ravi Shankar also highlighted that there is total denial of funds from Indian Government and its agencies. Moreover, none of the major Indian Industries that have pioneered in other areas in technology development have not come forward for funding the development of UAV Programs. Irony is that IIT-Madras has got enquiries about the UAV program from South-Africa, USA as well as Israel. In case the IIT-Madras accepts these offers of funding from abroad, the Patents of the UAV drones being developed by Indian Scientists at IIT-Madras will be owned by the foreign countries. Despite the absence of any funds they are still holding their fort in expectation that Indian Government or Indian Armed forces will come forward with the funding and support that is needed. Since Lt. General P. Ravi Shankar belongs to Indian Army, he has denied all the allurements of funding from abroad and want to keep this Technology with India.

On a query regarding the cost of development of these drones, he said the cost of development ranges from 5 – 10 crores. These figures are surprising when compared to huge fundings received by Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO and despite their research work in last 2 decades have been unable to deliver a working UAV to Indian Armed Forces.

There are a lot of Programs of Indian Government like Atmanirbhar Bharat. As per the Indian Government, “To give a push to the Make in India initiative, now is the time the MoD can balance its investments in DRDO UAVs/UCAVs and private MSMEs. The private sector in Defence has a highly skilled manpower available without any work in hand and they need to be given work to survive.”

Related Article India Working On Make In India Towards Achieving Atmanirbhar Bharat

In different startups also the venture capitalists are from the foreign countries. The technology once developed, the Intellectual Property rights go to the foreign countries that helped funded the venture.

Related Article Indian Weapon Systems: Pinaka Multibarrel Rocket Launch (MBRL) System

When India anticipates a 2-front war with China and Pakistan ready to wage war against India, it is essential that Indian Government, Defence Ministry and DRDO must fund IITs and institutions outside DRDO.

Points to Ponder

Will Indian Government cut the red-tapism and fund Indian IITs on an urgent basis?

Will DRDO do a self introspection and let IITs in India be given opportunity to develop the latest technologies?

Will Indian Government look at the “Made in India” UAV technologies being developed at Indian IITs?

Will Indian Government value the sacrifice of Indian scientists and Professors at IITs who gave up their lucrative jobs abroad and returned to India to do something for India?

Is a funding of Rs. 10 crore a big amount compared to Billions of US Dollars India spends on Drone Imports?

Will Indian Government help IITs and give true meaning to Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)?

Will Indian Venture Capitalists come forward to fund IITs so that the Indian UAV technology remains Indian?

Follow us at:-
Twitter Handle: @newscomworld
Instagram Handle: @newscomworld
Parler Handle: @NewsComWorld
Tooter Handle: @NewsComWorld
Subscribe our : YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnKJQ3gFsRVWpvdjnntQoAA
Like our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/NewsComWorld

 1,900 total views