India’s armed forces are set to become highly reliant on unmanned aerial systems by 2030, according to a scientist with the country’s Defence Research and Development (DRDO).
‘By 2030, the percentage of the manned fleet will have been reduced significantly,’ said Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, scientific advisor and secretary of the DRDO, speaking at the Aerospace ForumSwedenbeing held atMalmenAB, nearLinkopingon 31 May.
‘But it depends very much on how smart and intelligent we can make these [unmanned] systems,’ added Saraswat.
In his presentation, Saraswat highlighted a large number of the technologies currently being developed by the DRDO.
Currently the organisation is flying the Nishant UAV, a catapult launched, parachute recovered low-altitude surveillance system, as well as the Rustom 1 MALE system. Now the DRDO is working on the Rustom 2, this aircraft will have a 5km altitude and an endurance of 24 hours.
As well as its numerous programmes surrounding manned aircraft, the DRDO is working on UAV technologies required for the challenging UAV requirements demanded by the Indian armed forces including high endurance and loiter capabilities, icing and de-icing, sense and avoid and the ability to take-off from runways at 11,000 ft.
Aero-structures technology is also receiving attention such as bio-mimetic materials for nano air vehicles as well as materials that will self-heal or allow changes in shape in flight.
Among the requirements for the Indian forces is a ‘bomber UAV’ and a ‘fighter UAV.’ In the presentation shown by Saraswat was a flying-wing dubbed the Independent Unmanned Surveillance Air Vehicle (IUSAV), which featured a design similar to the X-45 and X-47 currently under test in theUS.
The IUSAV is likely to use some of the low-observable techniques currently under development by the DRDO for its Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and the country’s fifth-generation fighter programme in development in conjunction withRussia.
These technologies include radar absorbent paints, conformal antennas, low engine exhaust temperatures and serpentine ducts for airflow into the engine, planned to be a derivative of the Kaveri engine currently under test for the Light Combat Aircraft. The IUSUV is likely to enter service over in 10 to 15 years’ time.
The IUSAV would also serve alongside a solar-powered HALE platform for surveillance.
INDIA US PARTNERSHIP TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta leaves Wednesday on his first visit toAsiasince the Pentagon said in January it would “rebalance” military strategy toward a region President Barack Obama has called critical to US interests.
Thailandis not on Panetta’s official tour list, even though the country is, like thePhilippines, designated a “Major Non-Nato Ally” of theUnited States.
Panetta’s itinerary calls for him to meet Thai Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat at a security summit inSingaporelate this week.
Panetta’s challenge is to assure thePhilippines,Vietnam,Singaporeand other nations in the region that theUSsupports them while stopping short of confrontation withChina, according to Stephen Biddle, senior fellow for defence policy at the Council on Foreign Relations inWashington.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta will stop inHonolulu, headquarters of the US Pacific Command, before traveling toSingaporefor an annual Asian security summit, followed by two-day visits toVietnamandIndia. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
“He’s walking a tightrope,” Biddle said in an interview. Allies in the region want theUSto serve as a counterweight asChinabecomes increasingly assertive in disputes over matters such as mineral rights in theSouth China Sea, he said. At the same time, those countries have close economic ties toChinaand don’t want to “get into a conflict with the other major power in the region,” Biddle said.
Panetta will stop inHonolulu, headquarters of the US Pacific Command, before traveling toSingaporefor an annual Asian security summit, followed by two-day visits toVietnamandIndia.
The trip will be the first opportunity for Panetta to explain fully how the US strategy will be applied in practice, according to defence officials who spoke to reporters Tuesday on condition of anonymity because many of the consultations will be in private.
In January, the Pentagon released its strategic guidance that cited US economic and security interests extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia to the Indian Ocean region andSouth Asia. It said theUSmilitary will “rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.”
In the absence of clarity, the strategy may be seen as an effort to containChina, and such “a rivalry will increase friction and conflict,”Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said at a conference in April inWashington.
Panetta, asked this month if theUSstrategy sought to containChina’s rise, said the purpose is to “work with countries in that region to help develop their capabilities so that they can deal with the common challenges that bothChinaand theUnited Statesface.”
The Pentagon wants to work withChinato establish a “constructive relationship,” Panetta said May 7 in a joint press conference at the Pentagon with General Liang Guanglie,China’s defence minister.
TheUSstrategy was described as a “pivot to new realities” by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said in a November article in “Foreign Policy” magazine that it began a long-term engagement with allies in the region.
Since then,USofficials including Panetta have said the new strategy isn’t a pivot away from concerns such as turmoil in theMiddle Eastor from allies including the 27-state European Union.
“Enlightenment was advanced when administration leaders realized they had gratuitously offended European allies and gratuitously provided Beijing’s hawks with ammunition to argue that America was formally and openly instituting a policy of containing China,” Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, wrote in a May 20 article on the Daily Beast website.
Panetta will speak at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue inSingaporeorganized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based policy group. During the two-day conference, Panetta also plans to meet with his counterparts fromSingapore, thePhilippines,Thailand,Australia,Vietnam,BruneiandIndia, the defence officials said Tuesday.
Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command, are also amongUSdefence leaders who will attend theSingaporemeeting, the officials said.
InVietnam, Panetta will meet with his counterpart, Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh, to discuss implementing a defence memorandum of understanding the two countries signed last year, the defence officials said.
The agreement made in September calls for regular top-level meetings as well as cooperation on maritime security, search and rescue, peacekeeping activities and humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
Closer military relations between the two countries, including sales of equipment, are being held back because of US concerns about human-rights abuses inVietnam, said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies inWashington.
Last year,Vietnamconvicted 33 bloggers and rights activists of crimes for expressing political and religious beliefs, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Jan. 11. Authorities arrested at least 27 other activists and held two in detention for more than a year without trial, the group said.
Improved military relations with theUSwould helpVietnamgain better understanding of events in theSouth China Sea, Hiebert said.
VietnamandChinahave clashed over oil exploration rights in the sea.China’s neighbors reject its map of the sea as a basis for oil and gas development.
Oil reserves in theSouth China Seamay be as much as 213 billion barrels, according to Chinese studies cited in 2008 by the US Energy Information Administration.
InIndia, Panetta plans to meet with officials led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister A.K. Antony, according to the Pentagon.
Panetta’s goal inIndiais to find ways for more routine technical cooperation, theUSdefence officials said.
Indiais the only country mentioned as a partner in the Pentagon’s January strategy document and is one of the biggest buyers of US weapons.USarms sales are a “big part” of US-India cooperation, Nancy Powell, theUSambassador toIndiasaid in a May 18 speech inNew Delhi.
Indiamay order as much as $8 billion in US military equipment, in addition to the $8 billion it already has acquired, said Karl Inderfurth, who holds the Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Indiaalso holds more joint military exercises annually with theUSthan any other nation, about 50 a year, Inderfurth said.
Indiahas no intention of “putting all their defence eggs in one basket,” said Inderfurth, who has served as theUSassistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs. “Indians have a view of strategic autonomy and have no desire to enter a pact with theUS”
Indiahas made clear to theUSthat it will not be part of any regional group or coalition aimed at containingChina, Inderfurth said.
Thailandis not on Panetta’s official tour list, even though the country is, like thePhilippines, designated a “Major Non-Nato Ally” of theUnited States.
Panetta’s itinerary calls for him to meet Thai Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat at a security summit inSingaporelate this week.
Panetta’s challenge is to assure thePhilippines,Vietnam,Singaporeand other nations in the region that theUSsupports them while stopping short of confrontation withChina, according to Stephen Biddle, senior fellow for defence policy at the Council on Foreign Relations inWashington.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta will stop inHonolulu, headquarters of the US Pacific Command, before traveling toSingaporefor an annual Asian security summit, followed by two-day visits toVietnamandIndia. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
“He’s walking a tightrope,” Biddle said in an interview. Allies in the region want theUSto serve as a counterweight asChinabecomes increasingly assertive in disputes over matters such as mineral rights in theSouth China Sea, he said. At the same time, those countries have close economic ties toChinaand don’t want to “get into a conflict with the other major power in the region,” Biddle said.
Panetta will stop inHonolulu, headquarters of the US Pacific Command, before traveling toSingaporefor an annual Asian security summit, followed by two-day visits toVietnamandIndia.
The trip will be the first opportunity for Panetta to explain fully how the US strategy will be applied in practice, according to defence officials who spoke to reporters Tuesday on condition of anonymity because many of the consultations will be in private.
In January, the Pentagon released its strategic guidance that cited US economic and security interests extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia to the Indian Ocean region andSouth Asia. It said theUSmilitary will “rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.”
In the absence of clarity, the strategy may be seen as an effort to containChina, and such “a rivalry will increase friction and conflict,”Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said at a conference in April inWashington.
Panetta, asked this month if theUSstrategy sought to containChina’s rise, said the purpose is to “work with countries in that region to help develop their capabilities so that they can deal with the common challenges that bothChinaand theUnited Statesface.”
The Pentagon wants to work withChinato establish a “constructive relationship,” Panetta said May 7 in a joint press conference at the Pentagon with General Liang Guanglie,China’s defence minister.
TheUSstrategy was described as a “pivot to new realities” by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said in a November article in “Foreign Policy” magazine that it began a long-term engagement with allies in the region.
Since then,USofficials including Panetta have said the new strategy isn’t a pivot away from concerns such as turmoil in theMiddle Eastor from allies including the 27-state European Union.
“Enlightenment was advanced when administration leaders realized they had gratuitously offended European allies and gratuitously provided Beijing’s hawks with ammunition to argue that America was formally and openly instituting a policy of containing China,” Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, wrote in a May 20 article on the Daily Beast website.
Panetta will speak at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue inSingaporeorganized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based policy group. During the two-day conference, Panetta also plans to meet with his counterparts fromSingapore, thePhilippines,Thailand,Australia,Vietnam,BruneiandIndia, the defence officials said Tuesday.
Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command, are also amongUSdefence leaders who will attend theSingaporemeeting, the officials said.
InVietnam, Panetta will meet with his counterpart, Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh, to discuss implementing a defence memorandum of understanding the two countries signed last year, the defence officials said.
The agreement made in September calls for regular top-level meetings as well as cooperation on maritime security, search and rescue, peacekeeping activities and humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
Closer military relations between the two countries, including sales of equipment, are being held back because of US concerns about human-rights abuses inVietnam, said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies inWashington.
Last year,Vietnamconvicted 33 bloggers and rights activists of crimes for expressing political and religious beliefs, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Jan. 11. Authorities arrested at least 27 other activists and held two in detention for more than a year without trial, the group said.
Improved military relations with theUSwould helpVietnamgain better understanding of events in theSouth China Sea, Hiebert said.
VietnamandChinahave clashed over oil exploration rights in the sea.China’s neighbors reject its map of the sea as a basis for oil and gas development.
Oil reserves in theSouth China Seamay be as much as 213 billion barrels, according to Chinese studies cited in 2008 by the US Energy Information Administration.
InIndia, Panetta plans to meet with officials led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister A.K. Antony, according to the Pentagon.
Panetta’s goal inIndiais to find ways for more routine technical cooperation, theUSdefence officials said.
Indiais the only country mentioned as a partner in the Pentagon’s January strategy document and is one of the biggest buyers of US weapons.USarms sales are a “big part” of US-India cooperation, Nancy Powell, theUSambassador toIndiasaid in a May 18 speech inNew Delhi.
Indiamay order as much as $8 billion in US military equipment, in addition to the $8 billion it already has acquired, said Karl Inderfurth, who holds the Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Indiaalso holds more joint military exercises annually with theUSthan any other nation, about 50 a year, Inderfurth said.
Indiahas no intention of “putting all their defence eggs in one basket,” said Inderfurth, who has served as theUSassistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs. “Indians have a view of strategic autonomy and have no desire to enter a pact with theUS”
Indiahas made clear to theUSthat it will not be part of any regional group or coalition aimed at containingChina, Inderfurth said.
PANETTA TO DISCUSS MILITARY TRADE ON INDIA TRIP
Indiais going to be an important focus during US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s nine-day trip toAsia. In addition to discussing military-to-military relations, Panetta will also talk about defense trade with Indian leaders.
As US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta embarked on a nine-day trip toAsiato bring US allies up to speed on the new US Pacific-orientated defense strategy, officials highlighted the importance of US-India defense ties.
“Indiais the only country we mention in the defence strategic guidance as a partner. And we are really shifting to a point at which our defense interactions withIndiaare becoming routine,” a senior defense official told reporters in a briefing about the trip.
“The secretary has been eager to visitIndiasince assuming his post last summer,” the official said about Panetta’s first trip toIndiain the first week of June on the last leg of his tour that will also take him toSingaporefor the Shangri La Dialogue, an inter-governmental security forum of 28 Asia-Pacific states, andVietnam.
“US-India defense ties are extremely important in a whole host of ways. Strategically, we seeIndiaas a partner with whom we have a lot of common interests and a lot of areas where we can work well together,” the official said.
Panetta will also discuss defense trade with Indian leaders, as well as the implications of the strategic guidance for US-Indian military-to-military relations, the outcome of the NATO summit, and long-term trends inSouth Asiaand the rest of the region, the official said.
“We’re trying to have a relationship withIndiathat is broad, strategic and continual,” the official said.
“WithIndia, we are getting to a place where this type of interaction is just part of the norm of the relationship, where we engage on a whole range of issues-strategic issues, cooperative issues and a whole range of cooperative issues,” he said.
Besides meeting with top officials inNew Delhiduring his two day stay, “he’ll be giving one major speech inIndiaas well,” the official said.
“Basically the core of what we are trying to do with the swing throughAsia, is to give a comprehensive account to partners and everyone in the region about what the rebalance to the Asia/Pacific will mean in practice,” he said.
ANTONY’S MESSAGE TO NEW GEN: FORGET THE BITTER PAST
NEW DELHI: General Bikram Singh today took over as the 27th chief of the 1.13-million strong Indian Army, bringing to an end the controversial 26-month tenure of his predecessor General VK Singh, who retired after 42 years of service.
The new Army Chief has his task cut out, an indication of which came from Defence Minister AK Antony. The minister told the officialdom and the Army to “carry no baggage of the past” and that the “bitter developments” should not be carried forward.
Antony’s message comes at a time when civil-Army relations have hit a nadir. At times, it was felt that the Army was by-passing the civilian authority.
Gen Bikram Singh had to surmount many hurdles before he became the Army Chief. Had the Supreme Court accepted Gen VK Singh’s plea that he was born on May 10, 1951 and not May 10, 1950 as recorded in the Ministry of Defence, Gen Bikram Singh would not have made it to the top job. A chief retires at 62 while Lt Generals retire at 60 years of age.
Commissioned in 1972 in the Sikh Light Infantry, Bikram Singh (59) marks a generation shift in the army, being the first chief who has not seen action in a conventional war. The last conventional warIndiafought was in 1971 againstPakistanto liberateBangladesh. Known as ‘Bikki’ to his friends, Gen Bikram Singh commanded the Kolkata-based Eastern Army Command before his present assignment.
This afternoon Gen Bikram Singh arrived at South Block accompanied by his wife Bubbles Singh. He saluted the outgoing chief on entering the first floor office of the Army Chief located in this British-era building that houses the Defence Ministry.
Gen V K Singh warmly shook hands with his successor. As per Army traditions, the wives of both the officers were present.
Bharti Singh, the wife of Gen VK Singh welcomed Bubbles Singh, who will now be the chief of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA).
Gen V K Singh, after inspecting his farewell guard of honour, said the internal health of the force had improved. He said he was alarmed about an incident where a Major had complained about a fake encounter, and that there was no investigation by the 3 Corps headed by Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who is in line to head the force in 2014.
Gen VK Singh in reply to a question whether there were too many controversies during his tenure, said, “There is no controversy. If we pay too much attention towards certain things, they become controversial.”
ANTONY ASKS OFFICIALS TO FORGET “TURBULENCE” OF RECENT PAST
NEW DELHI: As Army Chief Gen V K Singh hung up his boots at the end of a controversial tenure, defence minister A K Antony today asked officials to forget the ‘turbulence’ of recent times and not to carry its ‘baggage’.
In the last over one year, the Defence Ministry and the army were engaged in a running battle over Gen V K Singh’s date of birth issue and some other issues which had brought strains in the relationship between them.
In a meeting with top officials including Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, the Minister said the “turbulent phase and bitterness” of the last several months should be forgotten by all, sources said here.
Antonysaid officials should not carry the baggage of this period during which the Army Chief also dragged the Government to court over his age issue.
He also asked the officials to ignore the period as an “aberration” and work towards helping the army in its modernization efforts.
Antonytold the officials that they should keep in mind the ‘cordiality’ shown by Gen V K Singh in his press conference yesterday in Pune and interaction with the media today.
Sources said during his meeting with the new Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh the Minister advised him to carry forward the process of modernisation and promised him all possible support in this direction.
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