{"id":55164,"date":"2016-03-20T14:50:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T14:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2016\/03\/20\/india-finalizes-3b-blueprint-for-uav-fleets\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:05:59","slug":"india-finalizes-3b-blueprint-for-uav-fleets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2016\/03\/20\/india-finalizes-3b-blueprint-for-uav-fleets\/","title":{"rendered":"India Finalizes $3B Blueprint for UAV Fleets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW DELHI \u2014 Indian defense forces have finalized a blueprint to procure for procurement of <\/span>more than 5,000 UAVs unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from domestic companies <\/span>over\u00a0the next 10 years for about US\u00a0costing around over <\/span>$3 billion, and the <\/span>tenders will be restricted given only <\/span>to domestic companies that can tie up with foreign firms, said a Ministry of Defence ( MoD) <\/span>source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lack of industrial expertise, combined with delays and cost overruns, have stymied past efforts to develop and produce indigenous\u00a0India in past has not been successful in development and producing <\/span>UAVs for tactical requirements. These efforts also were limited to state-owned companies.\u00a0because of lack of expertise in the industry coupled with delays and cost overruns in the homegrown UAV develop programs.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the future, the private sector will be involved in a big way to meet all future requirements of UAVs,” said an MoD official. of MoD.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next three to five years, the Indian Army proposes to equip UAVs down to the battalion level, while the Indian <\/span>Air Force (IAF) <\/span>plans to have fully operational squadrons both <\/span>of surveillance UAVs and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan includes the induction of\u00a0In addition, all the three defense plans to induct <\/span>\u00a0many “large number” of <\/span>man-portable mini\u00a0and micro\u00a0UAVs for short-range surveillance, and NBC (<\/span>nuclear, biological, chemical\u00a0detection in the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Army, Air Force and Navy IAF and the Indian Navy <\/span>propose to buy tactical UAVs, (TUAV), <\/span>high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAVs,\u00a0vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAVs, and medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs. within the next five to ten years. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A n Indian <\/span>Navy official said\u00a0the demand for MALE and tactical UAVs and TUAVs <\/span>could rise. , shoot up further.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homegrown Programs Underway<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is\u00a0already developing a variety of UAVs, including Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles UACVs.\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0which are in different stages of design and development.<\/span>Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing a variety of UAVs for the services, including:\u00a0Indian Army, IAF and Indian Navy and include thefollowing:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Air Force:<\/strong>\u00a0The IAF programs includes development of <\/span>Three Rustom UCAVs and one ground station at a cost of $60 million; two stealth UCAVs called autonomous unmanned research aircraft (AURA) and one ground station for at a cost of <\/span>$75 million; 30 Nirbhay UAVs and unspecified numbers of Lakshya-II remotely piloted high speed target drones\u00a0at a cost of\u00a0$531,687.5<\/span> per unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022\u00a0For the <\/span>Navy:<\/strong>\u00a0DRDO is currently developing <\/span>Three Rustom UCAVs and one ground station for at a cost of <\/span>$60 million with 12 and twelve <\/span>more to come; in future ; ten <\/span>10 Medium Altitude Long Range (<\/span>MALE\u00a0)<\/span>UAV <\/span>Rustoms at a cost of $225 million; four Pawan mini UAVs for at a cost of <\/span>$33.2 million; 50 air- and ship-launched Nirbhay UAVs; three naval <\/span>rotary UAVs at a cost of $232 million; unspecified numbers of Netra micro UAVs for at a cost of <\/span>$50,000 per unit; and Gagan tactical UAVs at a cost of $55 million with the <\/span>help from Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022\u00a0For the Indian <\/span>Army:<\/strong>, DRDO is currently developing <\/span>Three Rustom UCAVs and one ground station at a cost of $60 million and 12 twelve <\/span>more in the future; 10 ten\u00a0<\/span>Rustom-2 UCAVs\u00a0for\u00a0at a cost of<\/span> $342.325<\/span> million; 12 twelve <\/span>Nishant UAVs at a cost of $5 million each; and three hybrid mini-UAVs and one ground station for at a cost of<\/span> $350,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DRDO is also supplying about\u00a025 of <\/span>Netra micro UAVs to the <\/span>Indian paramilitary forces at a cost of $50,000 per unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An MoD source in MoD <\/span>said that in the next two years, fresh tenders will be floated for a variety of UAVs, and that\u00a0unspecified numbers of VTOL, Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV, Tactical UAV and UCAV and Data Link solutions for UAVs will be floated , besides <\/span>a concept study has been started on future<\/span> development of a bomber UAV\u00a0and a fighter UAV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major programs that have been are <\/span>finalized for the Army include are <\/span>induction of 500 mini and\u00a0macro UAVs and\u00a0an for Army at a cost of $85 million ; <\/span>unspecified number\u00a0of High Altitude Long Endurance (<\/span>HALE\u00a0UAVs; for the Air Force are an\u00a0 for Army at a cost of $175 million ; <\/span>unspecified number\u00a0of UCAVs, \u00a0and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle for IAF ; <\/span>95 micro unmanned aerial systems and an for IAF and Indian Navy ; <\/span>unspecified number\u00a0of small VTOL and mini\u00a0unmanned aerial systems; for the Navy are 95 micro unmanned aerial systems and\u00a0\u00a0UAS for IAF ; <\/span>unspecified numbers of High Altitude Long Endurance (<\/span>HALE)<\/span> UAVs and\u00a0\u00a0for Navy <\/span>costing around $200 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, DRDO\u00a0 Interestingly, the government controlled Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) <\/span>also has an independent unmanned surveillance air vehicle (IUSAV) <\/span>on the drawing board, which is similar to the X-45 and\u00a0X-47\u00a0developed in the US\u00a0and is also scouting for a partner simultaneously <\/span>to develop a solar-powered HALE UAV. ohigh-altitude, long endurance (HALE) solar-powered UAV.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently Indian defense forces are operating Israeli-made Searcher Mark I, Searcher Mark II, Heron and Herop UAVs and the Indian-made Nishant UAV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email:\u00a0vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian defense forces have finalized a blueprint to procure more than 5,000 UAVs from domestic companies over the next 10 years for about $3 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3390],"class_list":["post-55164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BLVSV2KDOFAQFHXBLTBDUMPNAU","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2016\/03\/20\/india-finalizes-3b-blueprint-for-uav-fleets\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\nIndia Finalizes 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