Pakistan Wing Loong 2 drone

WolfPack86

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Pakistan Buying Mini Drones From Turkey To Bolster Its Border Offensive Against India
According to the report, the Islamic nation is negotiating a deal to buy small drones from multiple Turkish companies to bolster its UAV fleet for deployment on the border with India.

The Indian security forces recently shot down a drone in the Kathua region of Jammu and Kashmir, with reports of more drone shootings in recent months by the Indian army. Pakistan is, therefore, hunting for more drones, especially mini-UAVs, to up its game against India.

With Turkish drones gaining worldwide popularity for their battle performances, as demonstrated in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the wars in Syria and Libya, Pakistan is reportedly planning to profit from its closest ally’s autonomous assets.

The reports in the Indian media also talked about Pakistan conducting trials in early September this year for the S-250 mini UAV at its 506 UAV base workshop. Subsequently, more trials were held in the 12 Infantry Division area from 8th to 18th September.

The S-250 is considered an ideal drone for effective monitoring of a designated area at any time of the day, ensuring the security of assets, detecting acts of unauthorized activity in areas of responsibility. Despite its small size, it can fly for up to 3 hours, with a video transmission range up to 25 km, and a control range of up to 50-70 km.

The Pakistan army has been looking for mini UAVs, which can stay for several hours in the air, to monitor the border, with a preferable range of 150 km. The trails S-350 UAV and there have been trials at Gwadar, Muzaffarabad, and Turbat, in Balochistan. It can be in the air for over four hours and has a range of 280 km.

The unmanned aerial vehicle S-350 is designed for panoramic and planimetric aerial photography and video shooting and other similar tasks. Its modular architecture allows for quick and efficient changes of UAV payloads and aircraft equipment variations.

The sealed design of the control system module and payload considerably prolongs the service life of the costly equipment under regular operation.

Pakistan has also been negotiating to buy advanced drones from Turkish companies, such as Bogazici Savunma, a Turkish firm, for the ILTER drone detection and neutralization systems.

The ILTER Drone Detection and Prevention System is the latest feature in today’s drones, with automatic detection, stopping and deception features against drones using ISM bands while communicating remotely.

Turkey is becoming a hub of modern drone technologies and has exported its armed drones to many countries in recent years. The Turkish drones used in the recent Nagorno-Karabakh war helped Azerbaijan claim a decisive victory over Armenia, and Pakistan is aiming to bolster its offensive capabilities by incorporating the country’s newly acquired edge.

Pakistan has a dire need for advanced drones as it is fighting a proxy war in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where the UAVs can be used for dropping weapons and surveilling the target areas. The Pakistan army has used drones to supply AK-47s to the militants on the Indian side of the border multiple times in recent years.

Besides, during the frequent border skirmishes, the army will need to keep an eye on the weapons and human targets on the other side of the border without exposing itself, which is why drone warfare will become the order of the day in the near future.
 

WolfPack86

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China sells 50 armed drones to Pakistan, begins psy-ops. It’s a reminder
This month the Chinese propaganda media wrote that 50 Wing Loong II armed drones supplied by Beijing to Pakistan will be a nightmare for Indian ground formations in high altitude areas as its military does not have the ability to respond to the new age stand-off weaponry.

Arguing that armed Chinese and Turkish drones had played a crucial part in Libya, Syria and Azerbaijan conflicts by decimating the enemy defences and conventional armour, the Chinese media continued with psychological warfare by saying that Indian ground formations will be simply unable to parry an attack by large number of armed drones.

While the Chinese crowing about the success of Wing Loong II in African and Asian theatre is a matter to be noted, the fact is that armed drones perform optimally in uncontested air spaces or air dominance. Whether it was the use of drones in Afghanistan and Iraq against insurgents or terrorists, the US achieved success as they were dominating the air space. “Whether it is Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir or Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the airspace is very closely monitored by radars and hotly contested with fighters. The armed drones will simply be shot down if they cross the lines,” said a former air chief.

However, the supply of armed drones to client state Pakistan by China makes a case for India to acquire weaponized drones as well as anti-drone systems as the unmanned aerial vehicles can be used to launch air to ground weapons without crossing the LoC or LAC. Basically, the drones can discharge the weapons beyond the engagement envelopes of the Indian guns or surface to air missiles on ground.

As of now, India does not have any armed drone system with Israeli weaponization upgrade of Heron drone taking time and the Indian Navy acquiring two US Predators on lease for maritime domain awareness for friend or foe identification. The close in weapon system (CIWS), whose tender was floated for 61 such systems in 2018 after acceptance of necessity in 2015, is still in field trial stage and Russian S-400 system is expected to be available next year. Defence PSU BEL has come up with an anti-drone radar based system but it is still to be validated by the users.

While the Chinese media and military would derive vicarious pleasure by comparing Indian army with Armenian, Syrian or Government of National Accord (GNA) forces in Africa-Asian theatre, the BEL manufactured medium power radar detects even birds in flight and it is cost effective to shoot down an infiltrating drone by using L-70 or ZU-23 air defence guns. After all, a Chinese Wing Loong II drone is one-tenth the cost of a fighter and it does not make sense to shoot them down using US million dollars air-to-air missiles.

To ensure that the troops are protected from stand-off weapons, the Indian Army is using tunnel defences with huge concrete Hume pipes providing the defence in case of first strike on the front-line. But a lucky strike from enemy drone can unravel the best of defence plans without proper integrated air defence network in place.
 

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