Military & Aerospace

Defence against Drone Attacks
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Issue Net Edition | Date : 25 Apr , 2018

China's Drone Jamming Gun of Wuhan Police that can shut off a drone more than one kilometer away

The loss of a Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of the Indian Navy near  Porbandar in March 2018 has taken the count of UAVs lost by the Indian Armed Forces to 14 since the Kargil Conflict. Although the exact reasons for these crashes have not been reported, media quoting officials privy to investigations, say pilot error was the most plausible reason, others being technical snags.

The pilot error is attributed to terrain and the wind-speed in an area not interpreted properly and the misjudgment leading to the crash. Technical snags in the control system or the UAV itself too can result in crashes.  There are technical faults such as failure in the engine, mechanical parts and interruption in the command link that can cause crashes. Even a pebble on the runway reportedly can cause accidents.

Over the years, the Army and Navy have lost some of their Searcher Mark 2 drones and the IAF too has lost a few UAVs, even as the Armed Forces operate over 100 Israeli-made Searcher and Heron UAVs to monitor the borders, enemy movement and surveillance over the Indian Ocean.

In December last year, the Army lost an Israeli-made Heron UAV in Chumbi Valley of Tibet close to the Doklam standoff site, which the Chinese were quick to point at the high altitude where the Heron was operating, commenting that the UAV was probably flying beyond its operating ceiling but the possibility of the PLA downing the Heron and forcing it to crash can hardly be ruled out. It may be recalled that in 2011, Iran electronically captured a latest American RQ-171 UAV, forced it to land in Iranian Territory and produced an indigenous version within one year.

But while drone terrorism and drone swarm attacks in conflict situations are knocking at our doors, we are still struggling with indigenous development of drones. There appears to be little focus on equipping the Indian security sector against such threat.

Moreover, there is not much discussion on how to shoot down or capture drones using artificial intelligence electronically and proliferate such technology for defending India at affordable costs and in packages that are man portable or easily deployed in all types of terrain from the most difficult to the plain, forested, high altitude  and built-up urban clusters.

India is a country that is prone to terror attacks that is likely to see the use of drones given the China-Pakistan anti-India nexus, Islamic terrorist organizations like AQIS, LeT, ISIS and the like. Where India is at strategic asymmetrical disadvantage in terms of sub-conventional and irregular warfare, the same can be said for drone warfare too particularly when it comes to defence against drone attacks.

Globally, technologies for miniature swarm drone attacks are on the anvil using artificial intelligence; even armed with facial recognition software and enough explosive to kill humans for individual targeting. Drones armed with thermobaric bombs have been used to target ammunition dumps. But where are we in terms of defence against drone attacks? What is the research being done by the DRDO in this aspect and what is the time schedule of productionizing and ‘fielding’ such technologies?

We need to take a cue from developments in China, which hardly faces drone threats compared to what India does. Inset is picture of China’s indigenous drone jamming gun, many of which are held by the Wuhan Police that can disable drones more than one km away.

On March 11, 2017 during a soccer game in Wuhan, Chinese police used these anti-drone guns to jam the control signals of drones trespassing close to the stadium, forcing them to land automatically. This Chinese gun is comparable to US jamming rifles, like the Battelle Drone Defender, used by Coalition forces in Iraq-Syria. Additionally, China is already selling truck-mounted laser cannons: the Low Altitude Guard and the higher powered Silent Hunter. The ‘Silent Hunter’ uses a laser to attack ground and air targets up to four  km, and at closer range is powerful enough to threaten lightly armored vehicles.

China deployed the Silent Hunter during the September 2016 G20 Summit held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province for protection against snooping drones. Considering that future autonomous drone threats would upgrade protection against jamming of communications, it will become imperative to equip defenders with hard kill systems like the ‘Silent Hunter’.

In November 2017, China installed a detection and defense system against UAVs at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport,. With a “detective early warning system” and “drone interference system”. Named ‘Cangqin’ system, it  can monitor low-altitude airspace eight km in diameter, and can locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range. The system does not interfere or influence airport equipment and can work in all weather conditions both by day and night. Once a suspicious drone is detected, information related to its position, model, and real-time coordinates is sent to the monitoring center. The interference system immediately forces the drone to touch down or force fly back by scrambling its remote-controlling signals. Needless to mention that Indian airports need such systems.

None of the DRDO products like the Laser Ordnance Disposal System (LORDS), Eye safe laser for Laser cross-section measurement applications, High Energy High Repetition Rate Eye Safe Lasers, Miniature Diode Pumped Nd:YAG laser, Diode Pumped Nd:YAG Laser for Space Based Altimeter, High Repetition Rate Diode Pumped Er:Glass Laser, CW Diode Pumped Microchip Green Laser, High Peak Power Monolithic Miniature Diode Pumped Nd, IR Guided Missile Tester and LGB Kit Tester are anywhere close to contributing towards defence against drones.

In September 2015, DRDO’s Laser Science & Tech Centre (LASTEC) commenced testing ‘ADITYA’ – a vehicle mounted gas 25-kilowatt laser-based directed energy weapon (DEW) that aims to hit an incoming missile in terminal phase at a distance of 5-7 km, however, there has been no news after that. ‘Aditya’ anyway is supposed to only be a ‘technology demonstrator’, implying production and fielding will still be many years away.

In 2008, LASTEC developed two variants of the short-range ‘Laser Dazzlers’ (PLD) especially suited for counter-insurgency (CI) and counter-terrorist (CT) operations. The hand-held and squad weapon mounted versions of PLD have maximum operation ranges of 50m and 500m respectively. Both variants are completely non-lethal and have in-built safety / interlock features against unauthorized use. As per DRDO news, the devices were successfully tested under simulated conditions.

AK Maini, then Associate Director of LASTEC told media in  2008 that the Laser Dazzler can: disorient or dazzle an armed soldier or a terrorist without causing any collateral damage in the process;  virtually “blind” the terrorist or anti-social element for around 40 seconds – time good enough for the troops to nab the culprit, and; flash beam being 2-3m wide provides better chances to the forces in disorienting the target.

The question is why the police and the central armed police forces (CAPF) are not equipped with the Laser Dazzlers in CI-CT environment, particularly to cater for confronting stone-pelters, which is even more significant when India lacks the will to deal with stone-pelters in the manner the rest of the world does. Isn’t it a shame that two CRPF personnel were stoned to death and three injured in Srinagar during April this year? Notwithstanding some politicians unashamedly saying security forces personnel are meant to die but where is the conscience of the rulers of the nation? Why are Laser Dazzlers not used in lieu or in conjunction pellet guns, or is it that the DRDO claim of these being non-lethal is false? Doesn’t the nation need an explanation why these non-lethal applications have not been mass-produced and deployed when DRDO has been claiming this invention past decade?

Getting back to the drone threat, clearly we are lagging years behind and simply relying on the DRDO with its time-schedules spanning decades, which too are never honoured, is not going to suffice. Countries are working fulltime in researching and developing defence against drones and their offensive use. We can be rest assured that China will transfer all such technologies to Pakistan, if not already done. The government must focus on developing such technologies in conjunction the private industry and strategic partnerships, along with a time-bound deployment schedule catering for such threats in holistic manner. We simply cannot wait to wake up after being hit by robotic attacks.

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Lt Gen Prakash Katoch

is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army.

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2 thoughts on “Defence against Drone Attacks

  1. I agree with the views expressed by Gen PC Katoch on drone attacks. Indian research and development on drones is far behind our adversaries due to restrictive policies and lack lustre performance of DRDO which I have experienced as a teacher and student of drone technology and its applications .

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