Chandigarh, May 4
European and Israeli companies have approached the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for undertaking joint development programmes on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

Preliminary presentations have already been made by European and Israeli companies to bring out and demonstrate their capabilities on UAVs. According to information released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the foreign countries have approached the DRDO on their own initiative.

DRDO has already developed a UAV, christened Nishant. After user trials, the Army has placed orders for 12 Nishant UAVs along with associated ground support systems in 2005 under a limited series production programme.

It is now taking up a programme for development of medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV to meet the requirements of the three services, which has attracted the attention of Western UAV manufacturers.

According to the MoD, DRDO is, at present, planning to undertake development of a MALE UAV in joint collaboration with an Indian partner only. However, if required, limited consultancy or joint development on certain key technologies regarding UAVs, may be undertaken with foreign companies.

Some reports state that the government has already approved a Rs 500-crore indigenous project to develop UAVs by the Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Establishment. This involves development of a MALE UAV, called Rustam, a short-range UAV Pawan and a tactical spy drone called Gagan.

Indian forces already operate the Israeli Heron MALE UAV, besides the Searcher--II UAV.