Group Captain R Vijayakumar (Retd) VSM, Executive Director of MMA initiated the proceedings. Mr Peter Rimmele, Resident Representative to India, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung delivered the Welcome address and Introductory remarks. He said that any nation that shuts its eyes like the proverbial ostrich to this new technology, would undoubtedly find itself unable to compete militarily with nations that are heavily invested in this technology. He related it to the recently concluded war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, marking the first in modern warfare, to be won almost entirely by the strength of drones. Armenia which fought with conventional systems was resoundingly defeated by Azerbaijan, which relied to a great extent on drones.
“The low cost and easy accessibility of drones pose a disquieting danger, as they could fall into the wrong hands of non-state actors such as terrorist groups,” Mr Peter Rimmele cautioned and stressed the need for development of defence technologies for the safety, security and protection of the civil population and the nations.
Air Marshal M Matheswaran (Retd), AVSM VM Ph.D, Chairman & President, The Peninsula Foundation (TPF), Chennai delivered the Opening Remarks and introduced the panellists. He spoke about a study done by US Air Force in 1995 and released in 1996 titled, ‘Air Force 2025.’ This study predicted that other nations could catch up with the military strength of the US using air power. The study also covered in detail the future threats from air and about drones. It highlighted the need for Global Information System and integration of all drones through a dedicated network and generation of 24 x 7 information flow.
Air Marshal S Varthaman, PVSM AVSM VM VSM (V), Distinguished Fellow of TPF and former AOC-in-C of Eastern Air Command led the conversation with the panellists. He traced the history of the use of air power since Wright Brothers invented the aircraft and its deployment from the World War I to the Gulf War, its use by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against Sri Lankan army and Al Qaeda’s crashing of planes into the twin towers of World Trade Centre in 9/11.
Air Marshal B Suresh, PVSM AVSM VM (V), Former AOC-in-C of Western Air Command talked about India’s operational preparedness and the global aspects. He pointed out that non-state actors have been the biggest beneficiaries of drone technology. Different kinds of payloads can be delivered even in micro UAVs, he said and added that impact fuse had been used in the Jammu drone attack. He listed that drones are used by three categories of people:
- State actors
- Non state actors with the implicit backing of states
- Non state actors acting independently.
According to him, the second group is the most dangerous as they get access to technology. He listed out weather, altitude and terrain as the challenges in deployment of drones. He discussed the different technologies now used in drones. Swarm Technology, though not widely used, is in the thoughts of our defence team, he said. There have been cases across the world of drones used for recreation causing havoc. The regulatory frame work for commercial and recreational drones during peace time is not adequate. It needs to be updated and put in place, he remarked and said that all drones must be registered and geo-fencing made mandatory.
Group Captain M J Augustine Vinod (V), Director, Automicro UAS explained about a successful demo project carried out by his firm for the Indian Air Force, by launching a swarm of 11 drones with autonomous mode using AI and Machine Learning, at Pokhran range, at 50 degree C, as part of a competition. Data link forms the backbone of swarm drones, he explained and said that there is a wide scope of playing with the images and interpreting the data generated by a drone.
He dealt with the challenges of detection of drones which is essential to counter security threats and listed three ways in which drones can be detected – using drone radar, intercepting data link between drones (electronic triangulation) and using acoustics. He reckoned that acoustics show greater promise than the other two. He said that defensive system against drones is a very costly affair. He batted for retaliating any drone attack with a much powerful drone attack. He also suggested that India must have a drone command. There are lots of opportunities for deployment of drones in civilian use and especially construction industry, he said and referred to a Goldman Sachs report on the same subject.
Wing Cdr David Devasahayam (V), CYIENT, Hyderabad in his address covered the issue of manpower required to operate drones and their knowledge and skillsets; miniaturisation and improvement in the payload quality; and the meteorological aspects in deploying drones.
Prof P M Soundar Rajan, NIAS, Bangalore. Former Director, DARE, DRDO talked about his work on drones during his stint at the DRDO and the importance of electromagnetic shielding for drones. He brought out the limitations in the current generation of drones and stressed the need for a robust design. He covered the communication, identification and surveillance aspects of drones.
Mr Sai Pattabiraman, MD, Zuppa Geo Navigation, Chennai talked about the national capability in drone technology and the steps to be taken to achieve dominance in this domain. According to him, the 2014 regulation banning civilian drones was a dampener in developing national capabilities in drones and set us back by at least five years. This led to proliferation of illegal smuggling of Chinese drones, he lamented. Though the regulation was removed in 2018, there are still grey areas, he observed. He explained how automobile sector can be used to benchmark drone industry and brought out the similarities between the two in cost, ownership and distribution. The future of drone industry in the country is bright, he opined.
Mr Abhishek Jain, Vice President - Strategic Partnerships, Zeusnumerix, Pune said that the fuselage of the drone is not that important. It can be easily made even from 3D printing but it is the electronics and the source code of the auto pilot that are critical to a drone. He also explained why drones are an excellent option for enemies of India. He listed out design flaws, lack of solid research, enemy capabilities, laziness, obsolescence and lack of vision as India’s key threats. He recommended that sufficient time frame must be given for designing and making drones.
Abhishek stressed that India needs to focus on indigenous autopilots, miniaturised motors, battery development and its optimisation and propeller manufacturing. He listed out India’s enthusiastic manpower and availability of schemes to fund the manpower as positive aspects. “We need a national UAV road map and we need to fund it. We cannot miss this bus,” he stressed.
This was followed by a Q&A session. Group Captain R Vijayakumar (Retd) VSM proposed a vote of thanks. As a token of appreciation and on behalf of the panellists, MMA has arranged for distributing face masks and mini sanitisers to the local community.