5,000 tethered drones to guard country’s frontiers from sea to mountains

The Indian Army will be deploying 5,000 tethered drones to guard the country’s frontiers across the vast terrain ranging from coastal areas to deserts and mountains.

“The tethered drone systems can provide integral beyond line of sight surveillance capability to tactical commanders with prolonged endurance,” a request for information (RFI) issued by the Ministry of Defence this week states.

Tethered drones are unmanned aerial vehicles physically connected to a ground station by a cable that provides continuous power and a secure, high-bandwidth data link. This enables extended flight durations that can carry on for several hours or days at a stretch. This makes them ideal for applications like continual surveillance, disaster monitoring and telecommunications because battery life is a significant limitation for traditional free-flying drones.

These drones will be employed in all kinds of terrain and associated weather conditions across the Indian sub-continent up to altitudes of 18,000 feet, and be operational by day and night including light rain and snow and in temperatures from minus 50 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees Celsius.

A combined electro-optical and infra-red surveillance payload, minimum flying endurance of nine hours and flying altitude of at least 100 metres in the tethered mode, and flying endurance of at least 60 metres and altitude of 1,000 metres with an operating radius of at least 10 km in the non-tethered mode are among other technical requirements. The drones will also have an in-built battery to enable operations like a regular drone or for emergency back-up.

Besides having counter electronic warfare capability, the system, which would be operated by a single person, would also be compatible with GPS, satellite navigation systems and digital maps.

The army is looking for systems with a modular design to enable seamless upgradation of individual components through simple modifications without any design or structural changes. It should also facilitate integration and installation as well as easy upgradation with future technology without impacting the performance of any system or sub-system.

The Indian Army, as also the other two services, is increasingly relying on drones for a variety of critical operational tasks such as attack, surveillance and reconnaissance, logistic support, communications and even counter-drone operations.

Drones, while being cost-effective, are also force multipliers, and also reduce the risk to human life. Several types of drones are being used by the Armed Forces to meet different requirements. While some have been sourced from foreign suppliers, others have been developed indigenously. Several programmes to develop unmanned aerial vehicles and loiter munitions are also under way in India by the Defence Research and Development Organisation as well as the industry.