Is this just meant to be a cheap drone for persistent surveillance in low intensity conflict/peaceful areas?
Yes. The USP of this type of drone is that they can fly for 3+ months at stratospheric altitudes providing persistent terrain mapping & hyperspectral data. This data could be fed into cruise missiles & smart bombs that have digital terrain matching capabilities. Another advantage of such a drone is that to shoot them down the adversary would need to spend AD missiles that will be many times the cost of the drone.
Some recent articles on the CSIR-NAL HAPS drone:
CSIR NAL flies test-drone that can double up as ‘pseudo satellite’
Meet HAPS: India’s very own UAV that can fly 20 km high and float for months
Currently 3 organizations are building these systems:
1. HAL-NewSpace are developing the CATS-Infinity.
2. CSIR-NAL is developing the HAPS shown.
3. L&T is also developing a HAPS. No names mentioned yet.
All 3 developers are doing sub-scape flight testing. So far HAL-NewSpace & CSIR-NAL are ahead.
It's a neat idea. I can see the sophistication of the on board avionics and sensors getting better over time as things get lighter/smaller and solar panels get more efficient.
since this pseudo-satellite thing seems to be gaining traction around the globe, I wonder if we'll start seeing pseudo-satellites with the explicit purpose of hunting down others. Would be amusing. Cost efficiency and all that.
A high-power ground-based laser paired with an array of satellite-based, airbourne & surface-based sensors would be a good option. We seem to be moving in that direction. DRDO's Laser based DEWs under the "Tactical High Energy Laser Systems" have started to enter service.
I used to follow that project very closely until a few years back. Some of my relevant tweets on that subject:
DRDO's initial forays into laser-based DEWs:
Phase-1 laser deployments:
Some info on the Phase-2:
The Navy is pushing to be the 1st service to induct the Phase-2 laser systems on-board their newer destroyers.
Havildar Varinder Singh from the Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army has developed a 'Multipurpose Octocopter' which can not only undertake surveillance operations but can also be used for other tasks like dropping grenades, aerial engagement of targets by firing weapons like AK-47 and logistics operations. For his achievements, Havildar Varindar Singh has been awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India this year.
Maybe UAV related ( since its ADE that is making this )
with serpentine intake though
with serpentine intake though
Our favourite lab, ADE is putting huge shift in to make aatmanirbharta work in uav sector. EOI docs attached.
NewSpace Research and Technologies demonstrates its #cuttingedge lightweight #PYGMY Vision based kinetic attack drone platform. The video demonstrates its various attributes. Can be air and ground launched, equipped with third party payloads. The simple interface and vehicle level #autonomy does away with the need for extensive drone operater skill, enabling all tiers of warfighters to carry the same on person and make it ready for ops in less than 30 seconds. Will be a disruptive asset towards offensive and defensive missions in the #TBA.#MakeInIndia #AtmanirbharBharat
[Video] NewSpace Research and Technologies on LinkedIn: #cuttingedge #pygmy #autonomy #tba #makeinindia #atmanirbharbharat
[Video] NewSpace Research and Technologies on LinkedIn: #cuttingedge #pygmy #autonomy #tba #makeinindia #atmanirbharbharat
That's just CATS is it from some DRDO presentation? I hope we aren't working on same tachnology twice at the same time
CATS itself is multi domain and would be integrated with command control with amca as well perhaps. The warrior itself is very interesting stealth concept with iwb and everything. Next comes the semi expendable options ie those Lm types. So if implemented well, these are good value addition/force multipliers. However with our uav track record, there will be lot of crashes too.
