Drones are a big part of India’s defense future.

They loiter, they spy, they spot, some rain hell on their targets. While expensive, they do not have a human cost attached. The United States is the top dog in this game but India is slowly getting the drone act together. Drone wars are now a part of India’s military capability - and their role will only grow. While actual numbers are classified, India may have an upward of 200 drones already. The Indian armed forces will induct “suicide drones” that can be turned into missiles this year. India has also shown interest in hand held drones for its army. The Home ministry also operates drones for counter insurgency. Killer drones are also on the Menu. India is testing drones that can carry smart bombs. Here is why Drones are important for India (a Picture of heron1drone vs. a Mig 21) Drones in India’s inventory can keep aloft for up to 40 hours at a high of over 30,000 feet, silent and small thus tougher to detect for the enemy. For many tasks such as surveillance it is just silly to risk a pilot’s life Almost one third of India’s fighter aircrafts are old and cannot do optimum sorties, the drone fleet is much younger. Drones are evolving, for new roles every day. India is working ondrones that can fire precision weapons up to a range of 100 kilometers. Drones will help Indian armed forces to overcome the pilot shortage India has critical pilot shortage drones do not need pilots. Training a pilot is costly. It costs over $2 million to train just one pilot. (Pic of trainer aircraft the Pilatus) India’s geography and topography makes the Drones an obvious choice India has a coastline of 7517 kilometers when you add 200 sq kilometers of the exclusive economic zone this becomes a vast spatial area to protect. 70 per cent of the high Himalayas fall in India much of it facing Pakistan and China. The average high of the Indian Himalayas is 6000 meters. The great Thar Desert on the Indian side covers some 80,000 square kilometers to look over. This geography makes human presence over most of it impossible The drones come marching in – here is what the Indian fleet looks like The searcher series (pic of searcher II) India started its drone deployment in 1996 with the Searcher I from Israel India operates newer versions of this drone, the searcher MK II This bird spies at 200 kilometers an hour and can loiter for up to 16 hours above 20,000 feet That is Ideal over the LOC and the deserts and the high seas India has an estimated 75 of these birds The problem is they need to be mounted on the controversial Tetra trucks which are hard to take up the mountain terrain So actual deployment is less then optimum Heron 1 This is the mainstay of the Indian armed forces in Drone warfare This drone can go up to 3200 feet at 200 kilometers an hour and over 300 kilometers from launch It has multi sensor capability can track targets as well as provide visual engagement It is valuable in tracking cross border intrusions as well as providing real time theater awareness for troops on the ground Here comes a drone that is also a missile This year the Indian armed forces are inducting the Israeli made HAROP It has cost India upward of $1 billion to acquire HAROP is special because it has a war head and can fly on a one way ticket It can become a missile on command It can loiter for hours a 1000 kilometer away after launch It was showcased at the aero Asian at Bangalore in 2009 It has cutting edge electro optical sensors This means it can “see” any pre launch activity from behind enemy lines The Rustom It is an Indian made drone named after the Late Rustom Damania who conceptualized it It can travel at 225 kilometers an hour and can climb to up to 30,000 feet India is also planning Rustom II its first test flight is in 2014 DRDO plans to make the Rustom II into an armed drone It is however at least five years away from entering service in meaningful numbers. The Aura This is the most ambitious Indian stealth Drone project It looks like a flying wing and has stealth features which make the dronedifficult to detect on enemy radars It is designed to defend itself as well as attack targets with smart munitions and missiles India may use its home made kaveri engine for this drone That engine has been twenty years in development but is not good enough for a fighter jet While an ambitious idea this drone is at least a decade away from induction in the forces.

Friday, February 8, 2008

IAF the widow makers

There could not have been a more tragic irony. In mid-1999 at the height of the Kargil conflict Flying Officer Pankaj Joshi and Flight Lieutenant Gaurav Chibber, were both in their early 20s. They had flown almost 30 sorties. But six months later both of them are dead - victims of peace-time air crashes that has seen the Indian Air Force's (IAF) flight record plummet to worrying depths.
Chibber died soon after the Kargil war on August 6, 1999, when his MiG-29 on a routine sortie over Himachal Pradesh suddenly developed problems and crashed into the pine forests. Joshi died on December 12 near Chandigarh, when his MiG-21 inexplicably burst into flames and went out of control. Joshi did try to save himself by ejecting from the cockpit but for some reason his parachute never opened and he dropped like a stone to his death.
Joshi and Chibber joined the long list of 28 IAF pilots who died in peace-time crashes in 1999 - the highest so far in the decade. The new year brought no respite. On January 10, a MiG-27 on a routine flight from the Jodhpur air base suddenly nosedived and smashed into the desert sands like a dart on a cardboard target.
The IAF's track record in the past decade is dismal by any standards: In the '90s, according to its own submissions in Parliament, it lost 80 pilots and 185 aircraft. Which makes it almost a squadron a year or a fourth of its entire fleet in the past decade alone. And the estimated loss: Rs 6,800 crore.
What is worrying is that much of the loss has happened in the past five years. "There is no doubt that after stabilising in the mid-'90s the crash rate - especially vis-a-vis the old MiG-21s - has gone up dramatically in 1999," says Air Vice-Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak of the Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). A senior IAF pilot instructor says, "Whatever the establishment may maintain, such crashes send the morale of the force plummeting."
The IAF in its defence says one reason for the high crash rate is that compared to previous years the force is flying at least 20 per cent more sorties in peace time because of the tense security atmosphere. A senior operations officer maintains that Combat Air Patrol Sorties or caps has gone up in forward air bases such as Jodhpur, Ambala, Tezpur and Adampur. Officials also point out that the rate of crash has remained a steady three per 10,000 hours of flying for the past decade. The IAF considers this as a normal attrition rate. But senior officers acknowledge that the rising number of crashes are cause for concern.
Much of the problem relates to the ageing MiG-21 which accounts for 62 per cent of the crashes. The aircraft, which this year completes 39 years with the IAF and still remains its backbone, is beset with problems. All the 22 MiG-21 squadrons are at least two-decades old. A third of the fleet is believed to be grounded for the lack of confidence in their ability to keep airborne without a glitch. The IAF loses one MiG fighter every 2,500 flight hours, making it one of the most vulnerable machines in service with any force in the world.
Most MiG-21s crash because of engine burnouts immediately after take-off and stress fractures to the airframe. The burnouts are often a result of poor engine maintenance and inadequate supply of spare parts especially of the critical blades of the engine that provide the thrust. But as a senior officer commanding MiG-21 squadrons points out, "Since nearly 22 of the IAF's 35 squadrons comprise of the MiG-21s, it is bound to reflect in the accident rate as well. Do not forget that as many as 17 Jaguars have crashed and we have only four Jaguar squadrons in the air force."
Part of the blame for the high rate of crashes lies with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the IAF. They did not act fast enough to induct the planned MiG-21 upgrade which was expected to enter service after a comprehensive refit in 1999. The refit has now been delayed by at least three years -- first, because the government could not decide the contract between Israel and Russia; and secondly, owing to lethargy on the part of the Russians. Instead of upgrading the entire MiG-21 Bis fleet, all that has been achieved so far is flight-testing of two MiG-21s in Russia.
Ageing MiGs are only one aspect of the problem. "There are two reasons for the IAF's poor air safety record," says Air Commodore (retd) Jasjit Singh, director IDSA. "The first is a 16-year delay in procurement of the Advance Jet Trainer (AJT). The second is the consistently poor quality of spare parts that are needed to keep the fighter planes airworthy." With the AJT absent, Indian fighter pilots do not get sufficient training to equip them to move from basic aircraft, such as the Kiran Mark II, to the most advanced ones like the Mirage 2000.
The IAF depends on the oldest version of the MiG-21 -- the MiG-21 FL -- for training but found the craft unsuitable because it is essentially a fighter-interceptor and does not incorporate any features of a trainer jet. Analysts say that bad training results in fatal errors of judgement at high speeds and these often lead to crashes. Says former air chief S.K. Kaul, "The government's lack of action on the AJT is nothing short of crass disregard for the force's vital needs." Even the present chief, Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis, at a commanders' conference in June 1999 blamed poor training for the high number of air crashes.
A decision on the AJT though may at last be on hand. A French team visited Delhi last week and an English one is expected over the next two weeks to hammer out a deal. Even when the AJT is acquired indications are that India may go in for only 60 such aircraft. Air forces with comparable force structures, such as the UK and France, have opted for 150 aircraft, including about one squadron in reserve. So the problem of lack of training may persist.
Another major cause for the alarmingly high rate of IAF accidents is the lack of spare parts. In the mid '90s, a committee appointed to look into the air crashes pointed out this problem and pinned part of the blame on the spares made by the public-sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. As for the spares from Russia, sources say that though they are now supplied on time, the costs since 1991 have skyrocketed, in some instances by as much as 400 per cent. Given the fact that 70 per cent of Indian fighters are of Russian origin this has a negative impact on procurement of crucial components.
Each of the major reasons for the increasing number of crashes - poor training, ageing fleet, pilot error, defective spare parts - are problems that can be addressed if the IAF and the mod get down to brasstacks quickly. Otherwise, most of the fighters would have to be nicknamed "widow makers".