UAVs?Potent force multiplier

The ability to successfully ?eavesdrop? into the enemy camp has always remained a serious military activity for any organised army ever since man mastered the art of warfare. Military history is full of examples of brilliant methods adopted by opposing forces in successive battles, wars and campaigns, to read each others ?intentions? with a view to remain on the right side of ?surprise?.

The ability to successfully ‘eavesdrop’ into the enemy camp has always remained a serious military activity for any organised army ever since man mastered the art of warfare. Military history is full of examples of brilliant methods adopted by opposing forces in successive battles, wars and campaigns, to read each others ‘intentions’ with a view to remain on the right side of ‘surprise’.

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With times the battlefield began getting enlarged and with it the quest for looking deeper, giving reasons for devising more innovative techniques for gathering intelligence. Perhaps the Second World War became the turning point with resistance armies, irregulars and fifth columnists working tirelessly to dig out as much information as possible for assessing the strength and intentions of their respective adversaries, most often at the cost of their own lives. Around the same time when air power had virtually broken barriers of time and space, another development with far reaching consequences was on the anvil—the proliferation of electromagnetic spectrum extending the battlefield well beyond ‘visual range’!

Therefore, it was only natural to harness technology for improving surveillance techniques that were essentially human based. This is how the concept of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) was evolved. UAVs are remotely piloted or pilot-less aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors, communications equipment or even lethal payloads. They have been used in reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering since the 1950s, and have been important items on the military purchase/production list ever since.

By the early 1990s the US defence department sought UAVs to be reclassified into ‘Close Range’, ‘Short Range’ and ‘Endurance’ categories. Close range surveillance was defined to be within 50 km, Short-range upto 200 km and Endurance as anything beyond. But by late 1990s a separate category emerged after clubbing close and short-range categories, limiting the classification of UAVs to Tactical and Endurance category.

Today, the international defence industry boasts of a wide range of UAVs. With ‘Pointer’, at one end of the spectrum, having a flying endurance of one hour, capable of carrying two pounds of payload upto 3000 feet to the robust ‘Perseus-B’ capable of remaining airborne for 72 hours at a max height of 70,000 feet.

Back home and in the neighbourhood the interest in UAVs always remained alive. Initially started as drones and pilot-less target aircraft (PTA), these were either towed by aircraft or catapulted in air for target practice by ground based anti aircraft batteries.

But with the advancement in avionics and airframe technology along with optical-electronic package interface, the military utility of these vehicles gathered value.

And both India and Pakistan armies dovetailed UAVs to their respective battlefield surveillance philosophies as effective force multipliers, placing them high on their purchase/production list.

Besides having acquired a neat number of UAVs from international arms bazaar, Pakistan has in the past also announced its technology demonstration of a sea-skimming version of National Development Complex (NDC) delta wing Nishan Mk 2TJ target drone. A turbojet-powered version with a maximum speed of 370km/h, a 42kg takeoff weight and 12kg-assorted payload was put on display in 2001.

The Indian Army is claimed to be better placed having a superior technological base. The present status however remains classified; hence not very many details about the ongoing programme are available although regular parleys on procurement and employment of state- of- the- art RPVs have been going on since 1998 prior to Operation Vijay (Kargil). According to newspaper reports, the Indian Armed Forces possess a small yet effective combination of ten ‘Searcher’ short-range UAV systems and perhaps six ‘Heron’ medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs. The indigenous DRDO prototype ‘Lakshya’ has been undergoing regular performance improvement trials to solve teething problems.

The Searchers and Herons are capable of handling opto- electronic payloads for day/night surveillance missions through a synthetic-aperture radar interface.
The army has also requested for an integrated package with relay capabilities for both the systems for use in mountainous regions, particularly for monitoring the LoC. Necessity undoubtedly continues to be the mother of all inventions!
colfasih1@rediffmail.com