Air Force and Army seal the deal for acquisition of indigenous drones

In a push towards induction of indigenous systems and equipment, the Indian Army on Monday concluded a contract to induct indigenously developed Remotely Piloted Aerial vehicles (RPAV).
This is in continuation with the recent induction of an artificial intelligence-based accident prevention device by the Army and a highly advanced radar system specifically designed for marine navigation.

Sources said the Indian Army and Z Motions Pvt Ltd have concluded a contract for acquiring eight indigenously developed RPAVs through the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) channel functioning under the defence ministry. The contract, worth Rs 5 crore, will see delivery of RPAVs by this year and would receive all of them in a year’s time.

Sources in the defence establishment said that the Indian Army is procuring these RPAVs for itself and the Indian Air Force also. They will get an equal number of drones for field exploitation. “After experiments, it has been planned to procure the RPAVs in bulk,” sources said.

The Indian Army said in a tweet: “… The state-of-the-art airborne platform would enhance the surveillance, targeting and tracking capability and carry out precision targeting of the enemy positions.”

Being developed as loitering munitions that will prove to be a game-changer during operations, these RPAVs will provide integral surveillance, targeting and tracking capability to light infantry, small teams of units and special operations units to carry out precision targeting at standoff ranges.

In another move towards raising indigenous equipment under the iDEX initiative, the Navy in May signed with Siliconia Technologies.

Siliconia got the contract as its prototype Challenge, which envisaged the development of a prototype that is a lightweight ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) based communication system, which could be used for Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit and geostationary satellite communication.