INDIAN UAVs (UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE),

THE BEGINNING!-A critical analysis.

ENGLISH FOR ENGINEERS
TERM PAPER
MONSOON SEMESTER, 2011.










TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION----------------------------------------------------------------------------------01


DISCUSSION---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------02


CONCLUSION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------05


BIBLIOGRAPHY----------------------------------------------------------------------------------06












1

INTRODUCTION:
UAV is an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which is an
aircraft with no pilot on board. UAVs can be remote controlled aircraft (e.g. flown by a pilot at a
ground control station) or can fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more
complex dynamic automation systems.
This paper is intended to critically analyse the article on unmannedaerial
Vehicles (UAV) made in India by col. AK Sharma
(retd.)(http://www.defstrat.com/exec/frmArticleDetails.aspx?DID=234 ) and was written on
11/4/2010. We will discuss about the different types of UAV, itsconfiguration and a brief
history of UAV.
According to AK Sharmas article on UAV let us see:
When was the importance of UAV felt?
What are the uses of UAV?
Who takes responsibility to make them?
Where are UAVs made in India?
What are the thrust areas of Aeronautical Development
Establishment (ADE)?
What is a Micro Air vehicle and who is behind its development?
What is Electro-Optic (EO) Payload System?
Is there any good example to prove the use of UAV? And finally we will discuss why Indian
UAV is creative.
This article was selected by me because the topic and its contents are very informative
and it forces us to know something more about it and hence it motivates us to research.




2

DISCUSSION:
The importance of an UAV was felt during the conflict in afpak region.
They are used for surveillance in the battlefield and to peep into the enemys border
undetected.Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the organisation which
is responsible in the making of the Indian UAVs.
Brief History:
The research for the UAV was established in 1959 under Defence R & D Organisation, The
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency of the Republic of
India, responsible for the development of technology for use by the military, headquartered in
New Delhi, India.
Where are the Indian UAVs made?
Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), one of DRDOs premier
laboratories based in Bengaluru, isdesigning and developing UAVs for the Indian armed forces.
The major thrust areas of the ADE are:
Designing and development of UAV.
Designing and Development of Systems for
Aircraft.
Flight Simulation.
Air weapons.
ADE has grown into a system house keeping abreast with the state-of-the-art technologies for
thedevelopment of Pilotless Target Aircraft, Unmanned Reconnaissance and Surveillance Air
Vehicles, FCSdevelopment for modern combat aircraft and advanced engineering and training
simulators for manned andunmanned aircrafts.
Till date, ADE has been and is engaged in the development of twelve different
unmannedaerial vehicle systems, some of which are missile Target-ULKA, Pilotless Target
Aircraft-LAKSHYA, TechnologyDemonstrator for low speed RPV-SPARROW, low speed
reconnaissance and remotely piloted vehicle-NISHANT,Technology demonstrator for MALE
UAV-RUSTOM 1, MALE UAV-RUSTOM H, and controlled aerial deliverysystem-CADS,
Laser guided bomb-SUDARSHAN and Micro Air Vehicle.
3

The author has clearly given a very brief history about the UAV and ADE which
gives us a basic idea about what it is.
Remember the way Osama died? How the U.S. officials monitored him? It was using
the American UAV (Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel) which peeped into Pakistan undetected
and monitored him several months before the attack. This is clearly proved in this article
(http://defensetech.org/2011/05/18/rq-170-sentinel-stealth-drone-used-in-bin-laden-raid/ ).
How is this UAV related to the Indian UAV? This UAV which is the predator type was
the base for the Indian UAV named Rustom 2.This Economic
timesarticle(http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-11-
14/news/30397385_1_rustom-1-solar-power-drones ) clearly shows that Rustom2 is under
development which keeps this American UAV as its base and is expected to be a better one.
Micro Air Vehicle:
To say about the Micro Air Vehicle it is a hand launched fixed wing mini UAV which is
being developed in collaboration with HAL. It comes in three differentconfigurations and is
fitted with a CCD TV Camera (day) to enhance soldiers situational awareness. This shows that
the author has very well researched about the UAV in order to write this article.
Then finally the author tells about the configurations about some of the many successful
UAVs made by India but here again he fails to prove his arguments.
Brief explanations about some of the Indian UAVs are given below:
LAKSHYA is a surface/ship launched high subsonic reusable aerial target system, which
provides a realisticsimulation of enemy aircraft threat to artillery crews for training in firing of
air to air and surface to airweapons.

NISHANT is an all composite, low speed battle field Surveillance UAV conceived and designed
with mobility asan important requirement. The UAV is launched using a Hydro Pneumatic
Launcher and recovered with AeroConical Parachute and impact attenuation system.



4

Electro-Optic (EO) Payload System:
To say about it in simple words it is a high sensor camera
in the UAV which helps in the stealth surveillance i.e. in finding mine loads.

Let us come to our final Discussion, How is this Indian UAV creative?
Isnt that your question?As seen above most of the Indian UAVs are upgraded ones based on
other countries UAVsbut it is just a beginning in India, Hence it is creative.














5

CONCLUSION:
In this paper we have discussed about the Importance of UAV, its uses and a brief history on it.
We have also seen that the author has failed to give reference for his article but which sounds to
be true after researching about it in deep. We also discussed the answers for the following
questions:
When was the importance of UAV felt?
What are the uses of UAV?
Who takes responsibility to make them?
Where are UAVs made in India?
What are the thrust areas of Aeronautical Development
Establishment (ADE)?
What is a Micro Air vehicle and who is behind its development?
We also discussed about what made Indian UAV creative.
To finally comment on the article, the author did not comment about the key features of the
UAV and he also did not compare it with the other countries UAV. Although the article had a lot
of research work, it lacked references or support.
To End up with, UAV is a very interesting topic which never ends as it is
just the beginning!








6

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Made in India Col AK Sharma (Retd),April 11,2010.
<http://www.defstrat.com/exec/frmArticleDetails.aspx?DID=234>


What is UAV?, http://www.theuav.com/


RQ-170 Stealth Drone Used in Bin Laden Raid, May 18th, 2011.
http://defensetech.org/2011/05/18/rq-170-sentinel-stealth-drone-used-in-bin-laden-raid/

India developing UAV similar to American Predator drone, November 14, 2011.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-11-14/news/30397385_1_rustom-1-
solar-power-drones

Aeronautical Development
Establishmenthttp://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/labs/ADE/English/index.jsp?pg=homebody.j
sp