The Hindu : National : Unmanned defence systems come of age

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 14, 2004

National

National

Unmanned defence systems come of age

By Harichandan A. A.

BANGALORE, JUNE 13. Even as the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, paid an "unofficial visit" here today to apprise himself of the status of the development of the country's latest manned fighting machines, including the light combat aircraft and the intermediate jet trainer, the nation gets closer to building its own ensemble of unmanned defence.

This ensemble of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including short and long-range drones carrying a host of surveillance equipment, and perhaps even an unmanned underwater vehicle, will do its part in saving the lives of troops on the ground.

Believers in unmanned defence systems hope that such an ensemble will not only provide advance warning of impending danger but will also be appropriately equipped to engage that danger in combat, acting as our first line of defence. While such a pervasive, networked and global positioning system-informed combination of surveillance and unmanned combat vehicles is still far from reality, the first steps have already been taken.

UAVs

For instance, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is said to be preparing to start production of its Nishant tactical UAV in small numbers so the armed forces can test it by next year. Lakshya, a subsonic reusable target aircraft powered by a gas turbine, is already used by the armed forces to train land or ship-based gun and missile crew.

The Lakshya could also be a basis for a subsonic cruise missile, which the DRDO is said to be planning.

Nishant is to be a day/night surveillance and reconnaissance UAV, with electro-optic payloads of up to 45 kg. It can fly for about four hours. The armed forces would use it for ``target acquisition.'' It can detect humans at 2.5 km, trucks at 5 km and buildings at 12 km, flying at speeds of 150 km per hour. A ground control station, with a fibre optic link, will tell it what to do.

The DRDO is said to be working on increasing the Nishant's endurance and on ``multi-spectral stealth materials.''

UUVs

India is also developing its own multi-role unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). None less than Vasudev K. Aatre, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, outlined the nature of the underwater surveillance of the near future, in a talk titled `Ocean, Marine Acoustics and Underwater Technologies,' last year.

In an age when stealth was the norm, an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) system, to look for something far worse than the proverbial needle in the haystack, will have to come with the ability to adapt to the environment and the nature of the target being tracked, and miniaturisation, Dr. Aatre said.

Sound will continue to be the primary way in which submarines are tracked underwater. With the exception of a "few electronic chips" India was "self-sufficient and self-reliant" in the technologies needed to build good Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) systems, he said.

The `flatfish' UUV would take some three years to develop, he said. There were "exotic concepts" being considered for it. It would be able to launch itself from a "mother ship," be capable of surveillance at various depths, have bi-directional communications' capability with the mother ship, and would also be amenable to remote control from the mother ship.

On surfacing, it would be capable of sending signals to satellites and earth and ship-based control stations. These UUVs would be part of a whole range of networked technologies deployed to protect our littoral domain. These include sensors on buoys, floats that could dive to depths cyclically, and computers capable of high-throughput screening to collect and process data from this network of sensors, and "some kind of GPS system" as well.

Foreign interest

In addition to all this, defence firms abroad are keen to sell their products here. For instance, StratCom International LLC, a U.S.-based company wants to sell blimps that can stay airborne indefinitely at 70,000 feet, carrying sophisticated radars and cameras. The company's CEO and chairman, James A. Abrahamson, toured the country in July last year, meeting defence officials and scientists, to sell the concept. Mr. Abrahamson came armed with a favourable ``report'' by K. Ramchand, a former director of the Centre for Airborne Systems, a DRDO lab here.

StratCom's blimp was a `Stratospheric Airship' (a huge sack filled with helium, an inert gas lighter than air). The helium keeps it afloat, and a combination of solar and fuel cells power it. The blimp can carry 907 kg to 5,440 kg, depending on its size. Among other things, Mr. Ramchand's report said a "family of blimps" could be deployed, with high-resolution multi-spectral cameras, sensors and ballistic missile defence interceptors.

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