Army plans to deploy thousands of drones over five years

NEW new delhi: The amerindic ground forces plans to seat tens of thousands of locally-made remote-controlled aerial systems and loitering munitions over the next five years to boost its battlefield capabilities, given the growing impact of these systems on military operations and how they have reshaped modern warfare as visible in ongoing global conflicts including the US-Israel war with Iran, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.The army’s requirement spans 80 different types of unmanned systems for specific roles including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, precision strikes, munition dropping, air defence, jamming, mine warfare, data relay, and logistics, one of the officials said, a day after the army released its “Technology Roadmap for Unmanned Aerial Systems and Loitering Munitions.” It offers long term visibility of the army’s requirements for unmanned systems to the country’s industry, academia and research and development institutions.“We are looking at this capability arriving in phases over the next one to five years. In-house studies that factored in lessons from ongoing conflicts indicated a requirement for 30 types of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and loitering munitions for five broad roles. If the sub-segments are counted, we are talking about 80 different types of drones,” said a second official.Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (Capability Development and Sustenance), unveiled the technology roadmap weeks after defence minister Rajnath Singh said India must take steps to position itself as a global hub for drone manufacturing by 2030 to meet the country’s defence requirements and preserve its strategic autonomy. He said ongoing conflicts, including the war in West Asia, have shown that drones and counter-drone technologies will be central to future warfare.The roadmap aims to harness indigenous capabilities for an edge on the battlefield, the army said.“By clearly laying down technological and operational priorities, the document seeks to serve as a critical bridge between operational requirements and technological development, ensuring that India’s drone ecosystem evolves in a structured, demand-driven manner,” it added in a statement.The systems required by the army for surveillance include high altitude long endurance UAS, medium altitude long endurance UAS, high altitude pseudo satellites, and unmanned air littoral systems (UALs) for long/medium/short range surveillance, according to the roadmap.The army is seeking loitering munitions to strike at long, medium and short ranges, drone swarms (for surveillance and strike), and FRV (first-person view) drones with strike capability. It also wants to deploy unmanned systems in special roles, including hunter-killer configured UALs, and systems with guided/unguided bombs.The roadmap aligns with India’s plans to raise a drone force under another roadmap, Defence Forces Vision 2047, released in March.The country is preparing to initiate far-reaching military reforms to ensure its armed forces are ready for future battlefield challenges, with the proposed creation of a drone force, a data force and a defence geospatial agency standing out among the raft of goals it seeks to pursue and accomplish by 2047 when it marks its Independence centenary.