The Indian Air Force's 9 Base Repair Depot unit has developed a new counter-unmanned aircraft system with soft-kill capabilities (pictured). (Janes/Oishee Majumdar)
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has developed a low-cost counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) with soft-kill capabilities to improve security of vital areas/vital points (VAs/VPs) against hostile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Project Officer Wing Commander Ranjith Unnikrishnan, told Janes at the Aero India 2023 show being held in Bangalore from 13 to 17 February.
The C-UAS โ developed by the IAF's 9 Base Repair Depot (9 BRD) unit in Pune โ includes a micro-doppler radar with a range of 7โ10 km. The radar has an inbuilt artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, which can discern UAVs and birds, Unnikrishnan said. 9 BRD is also working to enable the radar to identify different UAVs, he added.
The radar is supported by a camera and acoustic sensors to get an accurate detection of UAVs, Unnikrishnan said.
The C-UAS has jamming and spoofing capabilities. It can jam the radio frequencies that a UAV uses to communicate with its ground control station. However, this can induce the UAV to crash somewhere, causing collateral damage. As a result, spoofing is a more convenient response enabling the forces to hijack hostile UAVs and landing/crashing them at a safe point, Unnikrishnan added.
Given the range of the radar, one C-UAS unit is not sufficient for a typical airfield. It is estimated that around 20 C-UAS units will be required for one airfield, Unnikrishnan said.
โWe intend to install multiple units [of the C-UAS] at an interval of 250 m in an airfield. This will be done by mounting the jammers on the light posts around the airfield,โ he added.
Looking to read the full article?
Gain unlimited access to Janes news and more...
