The Indian Navy on Wednesday received its first home-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ‘Drishti 10 Starliner’ from Adani Defense and Aerospace, with Admiral R Hari Kumar hoping that the drone “can prove to be the third eye in the sky” for security in the maritime domain facing the growing problems of conflicts.
Adani Defense and Aerospace was contracted with the Ministry of Defense about ten months ago to supply four Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones for the Indian Navy and the Indian Army. Both services will receive two each in the coming months.
According to the private defense company, the Drishti is an advanced surveillance and reconnaissance platform with an endurance of 36 hours and a payload of 450 kg. It is the only military all-weather platform with NATO STANAG 4671 (Standardized Agreement 4671) certification for UAV system airworthiness.
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar said at the flag-off ceremony at Adani Adani Aerospace Park that the introduction of the UAV is most likely to happen next month after the training of the personnel handling the platform in January. It will now be transferred from Hyderabad to Porbandar, where it will be integrated into naval maritime surveillance operations shared by other platforms such as the MQ-9 Sea Guardian.
The navy chief said both neighbors, alluding to China and Pakistan, have a large stockpile of UAVs that guarantee the strengthening of the capabilities of the armed forces. Talking about future UAV requirements, he said the three services need 97 MALE drones. Of these, the Navy designed 20 of them.
In addition, he pointed to two cases of 6 MAL UAV upgrades. Hari Kumar also said that the Defense Acquisition Council has approved a proposal to acquire 31 HALE UAVs, of which 15 are for the Navy and 16 for the Army and Air Force. India is expected to sign a deal with US defense major General Atomics by March to procure 31 armed MQ-9B Predator drones.
Adani Defense and Aerospace has so far exported more than 20 drones to Israel. The Drishti was built here with 70 percent indigenous systems in a record ten months, although all the technology comes from Israel.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Naval Staff also said that in the past 40 to 42 days there had been 35 drone attacks on ships either owned or linked to Israel, mainly in the Red Sea, North Arabian Sea and Central Arabian Sea.
