As the simmering tension with China seems to have no end in sight, the Indian military is pushing the government to give clearance for arming their Heron UAVs with laser-guided bombs, precision-guided munitions and anti-tank missiles.
China has placed several type 15 light tank also known as ZTQ-15 in the Eastern border in Ladakh that gives them the significant advantage to them and poses a huge threat to our infantry.
An armed UAV with precision munitions can not only take out fixed enemy positions like a bunker, but it can also obliterate armour and other mechanised units.
Under the proposal of Project Cheetah, the armed forces want “90 Heron drones of the three services to be upgraded to be armed with laser-guided bombs, air to ground and air-launched anti-tank guided missiles,”.
This ₹3,500 crores project has been pending for a long time and as the tension with China seems to escalate, this project is getting some serious attention.
A high-level Defence Ministry body that includes Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar, who is now the in-charge of all capital procurements for the three services has been set up.
The armed forces want to equip the drones with stronger surveillance and reconnaissance payloads. This will allow the forward commanders to keep an eye on any Chinese moment and if required enemy locations and stations can also be taken out.
At present these drones are playing a vital role in helping and verifying the disengagement by Chinese along with knowing their troop build-up strength-in-depth areas.
The project on upgrading the drones for carrying out offensive operations against the enemies would involve a number of Indian-developed solutions too.
If the project is approved, the UAVs can not only be used against conventional military operations, it can also play an important role in counter-terrorism operations that will help our security forces take out terrorists and reduce causality.
UAVs can also be used in intelligence and its reconnaissance capabilities allow the forces on the ground to get pin-point locations about terrorist hideouts.