IAI Helps Indian Armed Forces to Upgrade Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Fleet

The Indian Armed Forces is working with Israeli firm IAI to upgrade its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle fleet.

The Indian Armed Forces is currently equipped with six different types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Four of them are Israeli-built, while the other two are indigenous designs. The Indian Air Force is equipped with IAI Herons, Searchers and Harops and DRDO Lakshyas, while the Indian Navy also has Herons, Searchers and Lakshyas and the Indian Army boasts DRDO Nishants and IAI Harpys.

In total, there's more than 150 UAVs in Indian Armed Forces services and it'll be the Israeli-origin examples that benefit from these upgrades, gaining more effective reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities.

Indian UAV Upgrades
Once the Indian UAV upgrades have been completed, armed forces personnel will be able to operate these drones over a greater range, potentially expanding their scope of coverage.

The DRDO Nishant made its first flight in 1995 and can carry out four-and-a-half hour intelligence-gathering missions. It cruises at 150 kilometres per hour and is launched by a mobile launching device, landing with the aid of a parachute.

The DRDO Lakshya is a high-speed battlefield reconnaissance drone that's been in service since 2000 and, after being rocket-launched, travels at Mach 0.7.

The IAI Heron is officially known as a MALE (Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance) UAV that, equipped with an array of sensors, can carry out sustained reconnaissance flights lasting up to 52 hours. The design's in widespread military service, while the Harpy and Harop serve with a much narrower band of users.

Indian Armed Forces UAVs
It was the Indian Army that first began the era of Indian Armed Forces UAVs, after acquiring IAI Searchers in the mid-1990s. The Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy then took up the reigns and, alongside this current upgrade programme, it's conceivable that all three services will purchase additional UAVs in coming months.

To that end, Indian Armed Forces officials are presently involved in discussions to establish its future UAV needs.

"Under the Rs 5,000 core project, we will upgrade the capabilities of the UAVs in all the three services with the help of the original equipment manufacturer IAI", an IAF representative explained to the Press Trust of India.