Indian Navy commissions Asia’s first unmanned craft squadron

The Navy’s long-term vision for a coastline dotted with squadrons of unmanned spy planes kicked off today, with the commissioning of it...

The Navy’s long-term vision for a coastline dotted with squadrons of unmanned spy planes kicked off today, with the commissioning of its first unit-INAS 342-in Kochi, thus becoming the first Navy in Asia to raise an exclusive squadron for unmanned aerial vehicles .

Wasting no time since it first inducted UAVs four years ago, sources said that the Navy has already held discussions with DRDO on developing a maritime UAV with the capability to designate targets and deliver guided weapons. The Navy, especially Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash, was impressed with the US Navy’s combat-drone command and control infrastructure in the Nevada desert, currently remotely piloting drones over Iraq.

The squadron commissioned today is commanded by Commander Rajesh Kawatra. At present, the squadron’s 12 Israeli-built Heron and Searcher MKII drones will be used for maritime surveillance and support for fleets over the Arabian Sea, but will be operationalised for deployment at the Navy’s other airbases on the eastern seaboard as well. The drones have already been tested at the Navy’s northernmost operational zones, including off the coast of Porbandar in Gujarat.

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‘‘To maintain order at sea, it is imperative that we have a clear and continuous picture of what is happening in the waters around us at any time,’’ Admiral Prakash said.

The Heron, one of the most sophisticated drones currently in production, has an endurance in excess of 40 hours, with a range of over 200 nautical miles. The less advanced Searcher MKII, one of the best-selling drones in the international arms market, can be flown for 15 hours continuously with a range of about 100 nautical miles.

The 12 drones were inducted in 2001, after which a long exercise of trial and tactical evaluation ensued since the platforms were built by Israel chiefly for surveillance missions over land. Over the next decade, the Navy plans to acquire UAVs, mainly from Israel but also indigenous ones being developed by DRDO, so that maritime surveillance can be left to electro-optical sensors with long endurance rather than the uneconomic use of bigger manned planes.