Punishment inflicted on enemy will be greater than before, says Western Army commander Lt Gen Katiyar on drone warfare

The concluding day of the exercise at the field firing range near Naraingarh in Haryana was witnessed by Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar along with senior officers of 2 Corps.

The Western Army commander emphasised that certain pointers had emerged from the drone engagements with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor and that these were being addressed by holding exercises such as this.

The exercise was conducted simulating offensive and defensive drone operations which included first-person-view (FPV) drones, Kamikaze drones, mule drones, and swarm drones.

“In Operation Sindoor, certain lessons were learnt regarding drone operations and these are being perfected in a tactical environment where close contact with the enemy within a range of 5 km was simulated,” said  Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar.

What The Exercise Involved

In-house drones fabricated by the Western Command and the South Western Command were used in an offensive setting simulating battle between two imaginary adversaries — Suryadesh and Chandradesh.

In a demonstration held at the firing range, various kinds of ammunition were dropped by drones, including 155 mm shells, 81 mm shells, and 51 mm mortars, attacking targets on the ground.

The participants in the exercise were from all arms and services including infantry battalions, armoured regiments, artillery regiments, engineer regiments, air defence, corps of electronics and mechanical engineers, and ordnance corps.

In-house developed shape charges and ammunition was also used and 84 mm rockets were dropped by drones in attack mode. A senior officer said that easily sourced low-cost ammunition were used along with 3D printed ammunition.

The saturation of the battlefield with drones was also demonstrated with several dozen drones taking to the air at one time.

‘Thousands of drones would be required for next war’

Speaking to reporters, Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar said that thousands of drones would be required for the next war and that the requirement was being met with indigenously developed drones.

Answering a query on the all arms and services drone operations, Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar said drones needed to be operated by everyone–be it mechanised infantry, EME, or ASC and that this was the way forward.

“We have used drones in high-altitude areas for supplies. In recent floods in Punjab, we have used drones to send in relief materials, and soon we will reach a stage where the material sent by helicopters will be sent by drones,” he said, referring to the various uses that drones have apart from the battlefield application.

Lt Gen Katiyar further said the Army would also be training the Drone Didis to help them work in the fields and in their villages and that the programme would soon commence.

“This demonstration was for tactical drones in contact battle. The higher-category drones are being researched and developed. What we have understood is that we can use drones more and so after Operation Sindoor, we have spent a lot of effort on drone acquisition and training. A jawan must know how to operate a drone,” said  Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar.

Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar said that in Operation Sindoor, Army units destroyed most drones sent by Pakistan. “In the next war, whatever drones come from Pakistan, we will destroy them with our counter drone systems and air defence guns,” he said.

From the homepage

Canada designates Lawrence Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity

What the FIR into Vijay’s Karur rally stampede says – and what it doesn’t

Modi writes foreword to Giorgia Meloni’s memoir, calls the book her ‘Mann Ki Baat’