By Air Marshal GS Bedi (Retd)
New Delhi. The De Havilland Museum in the UK has a unique exhibit, one of the two surviving Queen Bee aircraft. In the 1930s, the RAF converted a Tiger Moth trainer aircraft into a radio-controlled version, with some modifications on the airframe like using wood in place of metal, and called it Queen Bee from where it acquired the often-used name Drone (male bee).
They built it as a target aircraft for realistic anti-aircraft gunnery training. A visit to the Museum would reveal an interesting fact that the Britishers realised the real value of UAVs when they found it too difficult to shoot it down. UAVs have since then evolved a great deal increasing their role in war fighting, and their evolution followed a pattern. A brief history of drones available at Imperial War Museum in the UK records their first ever use for reconnaissance in the Vietnam war.
Slowly, their size, capability and function swelled to further include target designation and targeting it by itself. The Global Hawk appeared on the scene to supplement the recce capability of ageing U2 spy planes and Predator got a boost post 9/11.
The leader in Unmanned systems, US, armed the UAVs to achieve targeted killing of terrorist leaders, the latest being assassination of General Qasem Soleimani by a Reaper.
Islamists have used the drones to attack ground targets in Syria, and also Saudi Arabia’s largest Aramco oil facility. But the largest, concentrated and sustained use of drones is happening now in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Advances
As far as the advancement in the field of UAV is concerned, there are many high end programmes under development, like nEuron by Dassault, Taranis by BAE Systems, X-45 by Boeing, Rustom & TAPAS (Tactical Advanced Platform for Aerial surveillance) by HAL and Ghatak & Aura by DRDO.
Kelley Aerospace in Singapore is developing a supersonic UCAV, called Arrow. On the other end of the spectrum are cheap COTS available drones down to insect size being manufactured in mass scale by various start-ups. Somewhere down the line, the pattern of evolution, which initially was somewhat on the lines of mainstream aviation, has gone haywire and the hoard is to produce them cheap and in large numbers, primarily because they are considered expendable.
No fear of loss of a human being has provided a kind of legitimacy to lose them irrespective. A UAV, big or small, is a UAV and can be expended to minimise harm to the soldiers and equipment. But they deserve survival for possible reuse in the battlefield, and appropriate technology to retrieve them and reuse or rearm is already there. Their onboard cameras can transmit images, or capture them for a commander when they come back to their digital masters.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have also been lost. While some of them would have been lost owing to weather and maintenance issues, some were lost Afghanistan and Iraq while patrolling the No Fly zone. Counting the losses in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is not so relevant as most of them are being used in a kamikaze, suicide, attack mode.
The Indian armed forces purchased Searcher and Heron UAVs from Israel post-Kargil conflict to cover serious intelligence gaps and have never used them in active action. They gave valuable inputs.
Use of large number of small drones may be effective for surface forces to provide them battlefield visibility. The Indian Army could buy over 2000 of them in different configuration. Sure, the formations will employ them meaningfully.
Swarm Drones
Demonstrations done by flying hundreds of them together in a swarm have impressed the crowds, as during India’s Republic Day celebrations.
How effective they are in offensive modes is dependent upon their application and deployment.
There are drones now which can fire bullets at enemy targets on the ground. They can cripple flying or ground targets by just embracing them, or damage them with EW devices. Howsoever, their impact would be more than just being irritants, notwithstanding counter drones like fly catchers which can cripple them by casting their nets on them.
General Atomics MQ 9B Reaper
Indian Navy, Air Force and Army are set to acquire this highly advanced Unmanned Aircraft System in both Recce and Armed versions. The Indian Navy already has two Recce variants, MQ 9A, on lease and has found many Chinese assets deployed way beyond near the South Pole and Australia.
These High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAS were also deployed over the Himalayas to scan Chinese intrusions into Indian territory.
The US had initially offered only the recce version but at India’s request, President Donald Trump gave his assent to share the armed variant, the MQ 9B, before e left the White House. India is looking for some technology sharing in offsets in line with the government’s Make in India policy.
Some Thoughts on Drones
Drones are capable of providing Real time Intelligence and Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) inputs, and systems like the MQ 9B can precisely engage and destroy even a motorbike or a human target. But thy are very expensive, and need protection.
France, Israel, Europe, and China are also racing in the drone technology, while Iran has made low cost drones for suicidal attack missions.
Drones have to be carefully integrated with the fighting units, land, air or naval, and unless they are programmed to be lost in missions, their defence is imperative in terms or costs and redeployment. No commander accepts loss of his men or assets.
Can a drone take preventive action to escape a missile attack? Does it have Passive Counter Measures? Will it operate in a stand-alone mode or be the part of a team? Is it linked with satellites and intelligence aircraft like the AWACS?
All these things have to be factored including a system’s defence and costs if it is lost. Can these be equipped with ECMs like Chaffs and self protection suites? Survivability has to be a key factor.
If a surveillance UAV itself is lost, will it impact a mission? Particularly when a UAV or UAS is deployed ahead of say an aircraft formation guiding the pilots with critical intelligence and target coordinates.
Manned-Unmanned Teaming as well as Unmanned-Unmanned with AI has already been demonstrated by companies like Boeing.
The three Indian Services are keen to acquire various levels of the Drone technology. IAF, which has only 30 Combat Squadrons instead of the 42 sanctioned for both the northern and eastern fronts, is already working on teaming these assets. IAF, Navy and Army already have several high flying drones from Israel.
It is time to further energise the private defence industry to develop very high technologies in drones towards indigenous production. Some new machines though are expected to be seen at the coming Aero India 2023 in Bangalore.
(The author is a former Director General, Inspection and Safety)
