THE VERSATILITY OF DRONES (SORRY, UAVS)

The government needs to quickly take the decision to buy and manufacture UAVs and UUVs for strengthening the country’s defensive capabilities. This will require the armed services to move away from their Cold War-era thinking on how to conduct warfare, writes AMIT GUPTA

- AMIT GUPTA

The recent drone attack on the Indian Air Force base while not devastating was a warning that confirms what I have been writing in the columns of Geopolitics for the last five years: India need drones, in a hurry. Drones, or if one uses their sexier name, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are relatively cheap, difficult to counter, and can be used for a range of missions. Most importantly, if a drone is shot down, unlike the pilot of a manned aircraft, no one cares. If, in 2019, the Pakistanis had shot down a UAV, instead of a MiG-21 and not captured Wing Commander Abhinandan, the Indian public would not have batted an eyelid. Instead, there was an outpouring of rage over the capture of an Indian pilot, and for a while, it seemed that the two countries were headed towards a more serious clash. So, what is the best way to build up a UAV force, and in what security situations can they be used?

Drones: The origins