Punjab plans special centre to counter drone menace
The idea behind the centre is capacity building to deal with this menace and having a research centre to analyse various technical aspects to counter the issue
With drones from across the border dropping drugs and ammunition becoming a challenge for security agencies in the state, the Punjab government is mulling a proposal to set up a Centre of Excellence for drones.
The idea behind the centre is capacity building to deal with this menace and having a research centre to analyse various technical aspects to counter the issue.
“This centre of excellence will work on hardware and tools for examining drones, telemetry data analysis, flight log analysis, image and video, data recovery, remote control analysis and various other technical aspects,” the senior official, who didn’t wish to be named, said.
It will also be a secure facility for storing recovered, confiscated drones with hardware and tools for forensically examining these drones, the official said.
The proposal that first pushed by chief minister Bhagwant Mann in the Northern Zonal Council meeting chaired recently by Union home minister Amit Shah in Amritsar. The plan is to set up the centre as a satellite centre of National Forensic Science University (NFSU).
“Being a border state, the drones pose a mammoth challenge for Punjab Police, as reflected in the year-on-year increase in drone sightings and recoveries. Drones are mainly being used by hostile entities for espionage, cross-border smuggling of weapons/drugs and drone-led terror attacks. Present capacity is hardly sufficient on various aspects of drone technology,” the proposal reads.
The proposal, it is learnt is part of the long-term drone roadmap for which the Punjab Police has set up a standing committee of senior police officials headed by ADGP (Security).
IG Counter Intelligence, DIG Border Range, DIG Ferozepur, DIG Administration State Armed Police, DIG Cyber Crime, AIG Technical Services and AIG Personnel are other members of this committee.
Punjab has witnessed a mammoth increase in activities of drones from Pakistan posing a major threat to national security. Most of the consignments of drugs and ammunition from across the border are coming via drones.
According to official data, at least 244 drones have been spotted in Punjab so far this year, with a more than two-fold increase in drone activity as compared to last year. Fifty-five drones have been shot down by BSF this year. While 221 drone activities were detected inside the Indian territory, 22 were inside Pakistan.
BSF’s internal data reveals that 311 drones were spotted this year across the entire western border — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, with around 75% of these sightings in Punjab.
Punjab Police officials dealing with the matter disclosed that this centre will bolster the state’s capabilities in rogue drone detection and neutralization, lawful uses of drones for effective policing, disaster management, drone training for first responders, drone forensics, radars and anti-drone systems, training to counter drones, existing acts/rules/SOPs on drones, devising SOPs for response to drones.
“We have sent the proposal for the union home ministry as well. As drones have become a major challenge for states like Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan as well, the idea is to make this centre cater to the drone-related issues of all northern states,” a committee member said.
The changing tactics and advanced drones being used by criminals in Pakistan is another reason behind the urgent need to set up this centre, a senior Punjab police official said on the condition of anonymity.
Earlier, whereas drones with carrying weights up to 16-20 kg were used to drop consignments, the latest trend is to use smaller hi-tech Chinese flying objects, with a long flight time and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
The centre will work on capacity building and research to deal with this menace
The centre will have hardware and tools for examining telemetry data analysis, flight log analysis, image and video, data recovery, remote control analysis and various other technical aspects
It will also act as a secure facility for storing recovered/confiscated drones
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