India is set to acquire four advanced Israeli Heron Mark-II drones with a three-year lease deal to boost its surveillance capability along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
Although the UAV is intended primarily for intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition, the Heron Mark-II drones can stay airborne for around 45 hours at a stretch, providing a non-stop surveillance capability to the army.
The first two UAVs will be received by the Indian army in the next two to three months, with the other two likely to arrive by the end of the year, the Times of India reported.
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The drone acquirement comes after the government of India released a Rs 500 crore financial grant for armed forces to upgrade their capabilities. Following the grant, India struck a deal with Israeli authorities in February for acquiring the four satellite communication-enabled Heron Mark-II drone.
The financial grant has been majorly targeted towards increasing the surveillance abilities of the Indian army to ensure gap-free and real-time surveillance through a wide array of drones, sensors, reconnaissance and electronic warfare equipment along the entire 3,488-km LAC with China.
India further plans to acquire mini-drones for high-altitude areas and ultra-long-range surveillance cameras to MALE and HALE (high-altitude, long-endurance) remotely-piloted aircraft systems for the armed forces.
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Heron Mark II medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is the latest member of the Heron family of unmanned aerial systems developed by aerospace and defence company Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) MALAT Division.
The Navy is already extensively using two MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones, variants of the iconic armed Predator drones, for surveillance missions over the Indian Ocean after leasing them from US firm General Atomics last November.
The IAF is also on course to induct additional Harop kamikaze attack drones from Israel.
Meanwhile, Indian forces are also upgrading around 80-90 Heron UAVs in the Army, Navy and IAF with laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground anti-tank missiles as well as advanced reconnaissance and satellite communication capabilities under ‘Project Cheetah’.
