Indian drone development, procurement , news and updates .

[Lord Of Gondor]

Massive procurement order coming
Indian Armed Forces Set To Get Top-Notch MQ-9B Guardian Drones From The United States

In a big boost for the Indian armed forces, Rajnath Singh-headed Ministry of Defence is preparing to acquire 30 General Atomics MQ-9B Guardian drones from the United States (US), reports India Today.

The transaction is likely to be valued at approximately $3 billion. An 'acceptance of necessity' (AON) for 30 drones is expected to be placed before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC).

The MQ-9 is a satellite-steered drone which can float in the air as high as 45,000 feet, and stay in continued service for as long as 35 hours in a single stretch. It uses radar and electronic support to locate the enemy.

The deal for these drones is to take place in two parts. The first part would include six MQ-9 drones worth $600 million in total which will be purchased in an outright fashion over the coming months and two each of which will then be distributed among the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force.

Meanwhile, the second part of the deal would include 24 drones, eight out of which will be provided to each of the three forces. However, the Indian Navy has been made the lead service for the acquisition.

https://swarajyamag.com/amp/story/i...-mq-9b-guardian-drones-from-the-united-states

 

[polanski]

Indian to become the first Asian country to acquire American armed drone worth $3 billion: https://www.globaldefensecorp.com/2...acquire-american-armed-drone-worth-3-billion/

 

[IblinI]

This thread only surface when it is again a foreign purchase and cost wooping 3 bilion for 30 MALE drones.

 

[Fighting Falcon 01]

This thread only surface when it is again a foreign purchase and cost wooping 3 bilion for 30 MALE drones.

Just 6 drones for 600 million $ Indians are just feeding uncle sam ...

 

[IblinI]

Just 6 drones for 600 million $ Indians are just feeding uncle sam ...

They are not cost senstive as long as they are getting "State of art, game changer" items, I guess they are willing to pay 1 billion for one MQ-4.

 

[Pandora]

30 drones for 3 billion

 

[graphican]

The same drones were asked by Pakistan when fighting terrorism, and USA refused. You can clearly see if USA was against terrorism in Pakistan or in support of it.

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

New Ghatak Stealth UCAV Model Breaks Cover - Livefist

A never-before seen model of India's GHATAK stealth flying wing combat drone has broken cover in a recently uploaded video by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur), the principal academic institution conducting fundamental research on the program. In February 2018, Livefist had...

www.livefistdefence.com

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday (9 October) successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed Rustom-II medium altitude long endurance drone, reports Hindustan Times.
The prototype drone achieved eight hours of flying at an altitude of over 16,000 feet at Karnataka's Chitradurga. The drone is expected to achieve 18 hours of continued flying at a height of 26,000 feet by the end of 2020 itself.

Furthermore, the drone had an hour of fuel left after completing the test flight ceiling of eight hours.
The indigenously developed drone is capable of carrying varied combinations of payloads, including synthetic aperture radar, electronic intelligence systems and situational awareness systems. It also boasts of a satellite communication link to relay vital information on a real-time basis.
The DRDO is developing Rustom-II drone to match the specifications of the Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicle which is already being used by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy. However, the drone will have to undergo several more tests and user trials to reach the stage of induction by the forces.
This development comes at a time when India is looking at buying around 30 armed drones from the US at a cost of nearly $3 billion. The Ministry of Defence, reports say, has approved the purchase of the first batch of 6 armed drones.

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/india...-achieves-eight-hours-of-flying-at-16000-feet

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

India moves closer to acquiring Heron TP

• 17 OCTOBER, 2016
• BY: ARIE EGOZI
• TEL AVIV

The Indian air force is moving ahead with implementation of a plan to purchase the Israel Aerospace Industries Heron TP unmanned air vehicle, having joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June.

India is operating the Heron 1 and other smaller Israeli UAVs, but the purchase of a strategic system such as the Heron TP had until recently been put on hold.

Israel is not a member of the regime, which aims to restrict the proliferation of missile technology, but has agreed to export its strategic weapon systems only to member countries.

Last year, India’s Economic Times claimed the government had quietly approved the purchase of 10 armed Heron TP UAVs from Israel. New Delhi has also previously shown interest in the Israeli Arrow surface-to-air anti-ballistic missile system.

By joining the MTCR, India will be able to open negotiations to purchase the Heron TP. While the Arrow interceptor is funded partially by the USA, the Heron TP can be exported.

AirTeamImages

The Heron TP is currently heavily used for classified missions for all the Israeli defence forces branches, and has been selected by the German air force for its surveillance UAV requirement.

The UAV has a 40h endurance, maximum take-off weight of 5,300kg (11,685lb), and carries a typical mission payload of 1,000kg.

Source: https://defence.pk/threads/india-mo...he-israeli-heron-tp-uav.456482/#ixzz4NS04osRW


not alot of difrent then heron to super heron

As usual, downsized and delayed but finally here
Indian Army leases four Heron TP UAVs from Israel

 

[Capt. Karnage]

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

India to shortly deploy new Israeli Heron drones in Ladakh, LAC sector

New Delhi [India], May 26 (ANI): The Indian forces are set to get a major boost to their surveillance capabilities as they are shortly going to receive their advanced Heron drones from Israel for keeping an eye on the Chinese activities in the Ladakh sector and other areas along the Line of...

www.aninews.in

So Heron TPs flying out of Leh?

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Indian Navy approaches defence ministry for Predator drone acquisition
Interesting article/update

The Navy and the other two services are most satisfied with the performance of the two unarmed Predator drones on lease from the US as it has developed maritime domain awareness from Sunda Strait in Indonesia to the eastern seaboard of Africa.

That is a massive area, even with the intercontinental range of the Tu-142ME/Albatross this was absent just a decade back.
Another valuable update is this:

In the meanwhile, the Indian Army is set to acquire some six Heron high altitude long endurance drones from Israel on lease and parallelly upgrade the existing Heron drones with data-link and better radars. While the proposal for lease is pending with the Defence Ministry, the upgradation work has already begun to meet the challenge posed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

So this (more or less) confirms the Asian customer for IAI's latest deal
Maybe part of "Project Cheetah" but cut down due to budget constraints?
The original Project Cheetah cost was around 3500 Crores(Hunter-Killer upgrade) but the article mentions only the Hunter role for the Herons, and $200M is ~1450 Crores.

From IAI:

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed a contract with an undisclosed Asian country to provide support services for the Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The UAS services contract is valued at $200m. It is the fourth major UAS transaction announced by IAI this year.

Heron is a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV system primarily designed to perform strategic reconnaissance and surveillance operations.

https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/iai-heron-uav-services-contract-asian-country/

Also interesting is the number of leased Heron-TP as 6 as opposed to earlier numbers set at 4
@500 any thoughts?

 

[migflug]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693138698890875218

Just few KMs from where I live. very sad news, as it was just to go into User Trials!!

 

[Soldier35]

India tested Poland's Warmate drones. The Indian Special Operations Forces has published a video of testing the Warmate small loitering ammunition, manufactured by the Polish company WB Electronics. Earlier it was reported about the purchase of 100 kamikaze drones of this type by India. Drones of this type are also used by Turkey and Ukraine. Drones Warmate, developed in 2014 and designed for surveillance, tracking and identification of targets, it is also used as a kamikaze drone. The drone has a range of up to 10 km; if the target is not detected, the drone can return to base. The drone can stay in the air for up to 30 minutes and has a speed of up to 150 km/h, rising to a height of up to 500 meters. The maximum take-off weight of the drone is 4 kg, the drone is equipped with warheads with an explosive mass of up to 800 grams.

 

[HAIDER]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693156034389348462