Indian UAV Procurement Programs : General Discussions

[Ankit Kumar]

Navy’s Drishti-10 drone crashes near Porbandar, second mishap involving Hermes-900 platform

NEW DELHI: A Navy Drishti-10 Starliner drone crashed near the Porbandar airfield in Gujarat during a routine training sortie on Wednesday afternoon, in the second mishap involving the Hermes-900-based platform acquired under the emergency procurement route.

The remotely piloted aircraft had taken off from the Naval Air Enclave at Porbandar before going down in an open field near Dharampur village, around 6 km from the coastal city in the Saurashtra region.

The Army and Navy had contracted two Drishti-10 drones each under the fourth tranche of emergency procurement in 2023, at a cost of around Rs 140 crore per aircraft. The drones are licence-manufactured by Adani Defence and Aerospace at its Hyderabad facility under a partnership with Israel’s Elbit Systems, and are the Indianised variant of the battle-proven Hermes-900.

This is the second Drishti-10 to go down near Porbandar. In January of last year, a drone being flown by the vendor during pre-acceptance trials had ditched into the Arabian Sea after reportedly losing its communication link, before formal induction into naval service. That aircraft was subsequently replaced by the manufacturer.

The twin incidents in 18 months will renew scrutiny of the platform’s reliability at a time when the Navy is pursuing a case to induct 10 more Drishti-10 drones for persistent round-the-clock surveillance of the Indian Ocean Region, where Chinese warships and survey vessels regularly prowl, sources in the defence establishment said.

With an endurance of 36 hours, a payload capacity of 450 kg and an operating ceiling of 30,000 feet, the Drishti-10 is geared for long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

The Navy flies the drones from Porbandar for maritime domain awareness over the Arabian Sea, easing the load on its P-8I long-range patrol aircraft, while the Army operates the platform from Bathinda to keep tabs on the western front with Pakistan.

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Well not really that altitude, 24,480ft of altitude and 15:32 hrs endurance at 18,000 ft. Against 28k - 32k ft of Tapas. Well. 10 more soon

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If you want imports get the proven Heron. Same or better specs and proven for decades in India.

Hermes 900 import is Modi licking Adanis *censored*.

 

[Ashwin]

 

[Photon Vish]

$186k for a single one way drone ??

Barracuda 500 has over 900km range with 45 kg warhead and its cruise missile with AI swarm, GPS denied environment work and some RCS reduction at just $ 220k .
And thats USA with $1 trillion militry budget.

Even JDAM-LR with ~250 kg warhead with 550km range and cost < $200k.

Why our drones so costly ?

If drones has to be so costly then why not copy Barracuda 500 or JDAM-LR, our industries Definitely can make that.

We need cheap JDAM-LR and Barracuda type glide/cruise bombs/missile and not $ 186k one way drone.

 

[Ashwin]

Apollyon Dynamics

 

[lmaoxd]

they probably also include a lot of groudn infra like GCS and storage and other stuff as well. Its not per unit prices.

$186k for a single one way drone ??

Barracuda 500 has over 900km range with 45 kg warhead and its cruise missile with AI swarm, GPS denied environment work and some RCS reduction at just $ 220k .
And thats USA with $1 trillion militry budget.

Even JDAM-LR with ~250 kg warhead with 550km range and cost < $200k.

Why our drones so costly ?

If drones has to be so costly then why not copy Barracuda 500 or JDAM-LR, our industries Definitely can make that.

We need cheap JDAM-LR and Barracuda type glide/cruise bombs/missile and not $ 186k one way drone.

 

[Photon Vish]

they probably also include a lot of groudn infra like GCS and storage and other stuff as well. Its not per unit prices.

Barracuda 500 top include that if produced in thousands.

And if a one way drone is costing same as a AI swarm long range cruise missile then it's crime.

Atleast we can make 550km 250kg glide bomb ? We have small turbojet, hopefull we make this, its so cheap and provide enough range and massive warhead for < $200k .

 

[Ashwin]