Recently on Army Day (January 15, 2021), the Indian Army displayed its combat drones that are part of the Swarm Technology.
What are Swarm drones?
Swarm drones are lightweight drones that carry multiple packages to a single destination at a time. In simple words, multiple drones are engaged in a single operation. Here, multiple drones receive commands from a single drone. They overcome single drone’s payload and battery limitations. They work on swarm intelligence. Swarm Intelligence is the collective behaviour of decentralized and self-organized Systems.
Key features
- The Swarm drones of Indian Army has a range of 50 kilometres. These drones can make deep in roads behind enemy lines with the capability to hit the target from a distance of 500 metres.
- The drones carry out randomised sonic missions using artificial intelligence. They are driven by continuous satellite feeds.
- These drones can also be used for dropping food, ammunition, medicine and other special needs for soldiers positioned in locations cut away from supply lines.
Child Drone and Mother Drone
In the Swarm Drone Technology, the unmanned aerial vehicle has a mother drone that is attached to a child Drone. The child Drone is meant to fire and self-destroy after hitting the target.
Current Scenario
The Indian Army had only 5 combat drones in August 2020. The Drone capabilities of the Indian Army has been enhanced with the induction of 75 indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles. These UAVs can be used for surveillance and also to carry out targeted strikes.
Background
The Indian Army has purchased more of combat drones as the tensions escalated with China in the region of Ladakh. Also, the ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the line of control has increased.
Artificial intelligence offensive Drone operations
The Indian Army has taken up several technology initiatives in coordination with startups. The Artificial Intelligence Offensive Drone Operations is one such project that has been incubated with an Indian startup. It aims to develop high tech swarm drones for Indian Army.