CHANDIGARH: The Army has sought ‘drone catchers’, which are automated drones equipped with nets to ensnare or destroy hostile machines, in order to counter the increasing threats from small drones and unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which are hard to detect by conventional radars as a request for information issued by the Ministry of Defence.
The request for information for procurement of drone catcher system issued to the vendors reads, "The air threat from low radar cross section drones (RCS) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) employed individually or as a SWARM has grown exponentially. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement to develop and procure suitable weapon systems for countering and neutralizing this emerging threat. A drone catcher system is required to detect and counter the low RCS drone or UAS by utilizing the net catcher.’’
The request further noted that the proposed system should be able to deploy independently or in conjunction with in-service air defence weapon systems and other C-UAS weapon systems in all types of terrain conditions as obtainable in India.
The proposed system should have a surveillance, detection, and tracking capability, a microprocessor for computing a targeting solution, and a drone with a net catcher facility as per the system, along with a ground control station (GCS).
The RFI document further states that the drone sensor will be based on electronically scanned array technology or better, and it should be able to scan large volumes of airspace for drone intrusions.
"It should be able to detect the target drones all around (3600 ) with a minimum detection, tracking capability of 20 drones/ and UAS simultaneously. The drone sensor should be able to detect, track and prioritize and thereafter designate the hostile targets to the drone catcher through the GCS. The slant range of the drone sensor should be 4 kilometers or more (for 0.01 Sqm RCS),’’ it read.
The documents states that the drone catcher system will have a ground control station (GCS) which will feed information, data received from the drone sensor to the drone catcher remotely via a data link so that the drone catcher initiates effective measures to effect capture or destruction of the hostile drone by utilizing net catcher.
"The sensor should be compatible for integration with the Akashteer control and reporting air defence module through hardware interfaces with inbuilt software. It should also meet the Army Cyber Group evaluation criteria for being on-boarded on to the Army Data Network,’’ it added.
The ground control station will include a laptop or tablet computer that will be used to display telemetry information of hostile drones or UAS of small RCS received from the Drone Sensor and this information will be passed on to the Drone Catchers to undertake effective measures to destroy the aerial threat.
"The jammer subsystem shall provide electronic attack capabilities against hostile UAS, including RF denial, selective GNSS denial, and GNSS deception, across standard and non-standard frequency bands. The system shall support controlled and selective application of soft-kill measures and be capable of operating concurrently with hard-kill effectors without mutual interference,’’ adds the request for information.
The system would be employed across all types of terrain and climatic conditions in India from plains, deserts, and coastal areas to high altitude and mountainous area, up to 4500 meters and in temperatures ranging from minus 15 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees Celsius.