India Buys 4 Israeli Herons, to Upgrade Them With Missiles as Army, Indian Airforce, Navy Ramp Up Drone Inventory
India has finalised the deal to buy four new Heron TP drones from Israel that will initially be used in surveillance and reconnaissance missions, but will eventually be upgraded and armed with missiles for precision strikes under Project Cheetah when it kicks off.
Contract to this effect has been signed and that the drones
should arrive by the end of this year. The initial plan was to lease the four
drones from Israel, India later decided to buy them instead.
When Project Cheetah is finalised, the Medium Altitude Long
Endurance Heron TP UAVs in the inventory of the Army, Navy and the Indian Air
Force will not just be upgraded with advanced satellite communication and
sensors for longer surveillance and reconnaissance missions, but are also
likely to be armed with air to ground missiles and laser guided munitions for
precision strikes.
Some of the upgraded Heron TP UAVs will have a loitering time
of nearly 24 hours and a communication range of 1,000 kilometers. India has
also been looking to buy 30 MQ-9B High Altitude Long Endurance armed drones
from the US, 10 for each of the defence services, costing a total of $3
billion.
The Navy, meanwhile, has already leased two MQ-9B Sea
Guardian drones from General Atomics for surveillance in the Indian Ocean.
How the army is tweaking its vintage L-70 gun into a drone killer?
The optical sights spotted the rogue drone hovering over the
target area nearly 500 metres away. The gunners studying the target in their
command post gave the order to engage the target. Within seconds an L-70 gun
slewed towards left and shot off a four round clip into the sky.
The proximity fuses inside the 40mm shells spinning through
the air exploded, creating a cloud of thousands of tungsten fragments which
shattered the drone.
Four days later, on September 21, the army repeated the test
at the Army Air Defence College on the seafront at Gopalpur, Odisha, and
successfully intercepted another 0.6 metre wide commercially purchased drone.
This is believed to be the first test of the upgraded L-70
against small drones. Part of a project started around a year ago by the Army
Air Defence Corps, the system interfaces a counter drone system made by a
Hyderabad based private player with the army’s in-service L 70 air defence gun.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited to supply upgraded SRGM for
Indian Navy warships
In a major boost to Defence Production under the ‘Make in
India’ initiative and towards achieving self-reliance in the critical field of
Defence equipment, Goa Shipyard has placed a maiden order on Bharat Heavy
Electricals Limited BH-EL for supply of an upgraded Super Rapid Gun Mount SRGM,
the Main gun onboard most Warships of the Indian Navy.
The order envisages supply, installation and commissioning of
the entire system – Upgraded SRGM and accessories for Triput Class Frigates of
the Indian Navy, which will be manufactured by the Haridwar unit of BH-EL.
The upgraded SRGM is a state-of-the-art weapon system having
additional features such as capability to manage different types of ammunition
to engage fast, manoeuvring and non-manoeuvring, radio-controlled targets. The
upgraded SRGM has the capability to fire advanced Ammunition with higher range
and programmable ammunition.
