New Delhi. Countering growing threats from unmanned aerial systems along the western and northern borders have been a prioritised concern for the Indian Army. To address this, the Indian Army is set to procure an advanced version of the Integrated Drone Detection and Interdiction system (MK IIA).
Reflecting the efforts to develop and procure counter drone systems to counter increasing threats from enemy unmanned aerial systems, the fresh RFI comes within months after the Army inducted indigenous integrated drone detection and interdiction systems in the northern border along the China border in the northern sector.
Last month, a Request for Information (RFI) was published by the Army to seek details about the system from prospective vendors. The proposed system should have a surveillance, detection and tracking capability, microprocessor for computing a targeting solution and a LASER weapon system for hard kill or destruction and jamming capability for soft kill or denial.
The Army Air Defence had got seven systems having both soft and hard kill options, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Bharat Electronics, five of which were inducted for deployment close to the northern borders.
The Armed Forces have deployed other improvised systems with different counter-UAS capabilities apart from these indigenous systems. This includes prototypes of laser-based systems developed indigenously with Army Air Defence, improvised versions of ZU-23 and L/70 guns for drone detection and killing, ad-hoc handled jammers, low-level lightweight radars, among others. The Armed Forces have inducted anti-drone systems from Indian private firms and the Israeli SMASH 2000 plus systems to tackle enemy drone threats.
While submitting their bids, the vendors will provide the details such as range of detection and other technical parameters. However, the RFI states that it should have a radar system that should be able to detect and track low RCS targets, and assist in designation of the hostile targets to the weapon system. According to officials, it is likely that the advanced system may have a greater bandwidth of frequencies for tracking and taking down enemy drones and an improved range for the system beyond 800 metres, which is there for its MK 1 version.
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