US Navy has decided to replace its Aircrafts gradually with UAVs.
There is a strong demand for India over the UAV venture.
What are the significance of UAVs?
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are the best for search and strike missions with low calibre high accuracy guided weapons.
Controlled from a ground station, the UAV either flies a pre-planned path or can be dynamically controlled.
UAV’s has high endurance, which allows a high success rate for search and strike missions.
The roles of UAVs are gradually increasing in the civil sector, ranging from the delivery of packages to the shooting of high-quality aerial films.
What are the short comings with UAVs in replacing MAVs?
Sensors - Present sensors do not have the capacity to replicate the appreciation by a human eye and pose a limitation in operations.
Dynamic Situation Processing - Decision-making autonomy is required, It cannot be explicitly expressed mathematically, a human is essential.
Communication - Their inability is to capture high fidelity data, based on directions from the ground station, receive, decrypt and process it to execute a command.
Speed and Manoeuvrability - They are low speed and consequent low manoeuvrability as compared to manned fighter aircraft and this makes them vulnerable.
Weapon Carrying Capacity - UAVs are capable of carrying low calibre/low weight weapons in limited numbers as compared to manned aircraft.
Safety - UAV accident rates are four to five times higher than that of manned aircraft.
Endurance - Autonomous inflight refuelling could keep the UAV in the air for days.
Risk - The control of UAV is heavily dependent on electromagnetic waves, which are susceptible to interference/jamming/technical malfunctions.
What is Indian UAV Scenario?
By 2050, at least 50 per cent of combat missions would be designated to UAVs and that would require a large fleet of various types of UAVs.
While Israel and USA are leaders in UAV technology and operations, the Indian UAV programme is in its infancy.
Going by the example of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the production of an Indian combat mission capable UAV is at least a couple of decades away.
To meet that challenge, it would be prudent to establish a joint venture for the production of UAVs in India under the Strategic Partnership programme.
