Project Cheetah

[airtel]

Project Cheetah: India to now have combat drones to carry out surgical strikes in future

Under Project Cheetah, IAF to upgrade Israeli-made UAVs with missiles.

These combat drones will be able to carry out surgical strikes.

The project to cost more than Rs 10,000 crores.

After using Special Forces troops to attack and destroy terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, India is now planning to add combat drones to its fleet which can do the same job without risking soldiers' lives.

The Indian Air Force is working to upgrade and equip its fleet of Israeli-made Searcher and Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with missiles under a top secret and classified programme code named 'Project Cheetah'.

For the ambitious plan, which is expected to cost almost more than Rs 10,000 crores, the Air Force is looking to join hands with the Israel defence major Israeli Aircraft Industry (IAI).

"Under the project, we are planning to equip our Searchers and Herons with advance snooping capabilities and missiles which can target terrorists and their hideouts both within India and if required, across the borders," a senior IAF source told Mail Today.

Also Read | Surgical strikes in PoK: How Indian para commandos killed 50 terrorists, hit 7 camps
Also Read | Avenging Uri: How India conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir

UAVs WILL HAVE SNOOPING CAPABILITIES, AND THE ABILITY TO STRIKE

Former IAF vice chief air marshal RK Sharma said ideally when the UAVs can see targets with their surveillance and snooping payloads, they should also have the capability to strike rather than having to deploy other aircraft or assets to do that job.

"If you have such a capability in form of drones, you can take down terrorist targets both within and across the borders," the former vice chief stated.

With such a capability in its fold, in future scenario if the Army units inform about any particular launch pad of terrorists getting active, the IAF can deploy its armed drones to unleash a silent punishment to terrorists from 30,000 feet over the ground.

After silently hovering over PoK over suspected launch pads for some time gathering accurate intelligence the drones can launch an attack and return to the base causing greater damage than what the troops can do.

"The precision guided missiles would also help in specific elimination of desired targets and there would be none or minimum collateral damage in such operations," the IAF officer explained.



DRONES CAN BE PUT TO USE TO LOCATE TERRORISTS

Officers said the drones can also be put to use in case a terrorist hideout is located in higher reaches in Kashmir where missiles can be safely fired to destroy them without any fear of causing any injury to the civilians.

For turning their surveillances drones into killer vehicles, the IAF has taken a cue from the United States. For the Americans, drones are the weapons of choice for taking out terrorist leaders or destroying their safe houses.

The Americans regularly smoke out terrorists using their MQ-1 Predators and GlobalHawk as it has killed several more than 2,500 terrorist leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan alone during its war on terror in these countries.

India, so far, has not used air power in anti-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir or Northeast to take out terrorists as a policy to not to be seen being too tough within own areas.

India recently used helicopter gunships to eliminate terrorists who had entered the Pathankot air base but that was within a military station and not in civilian locality. Unlike India, Pakistan uses its American AH1 Cobra gunships extensively against even suspected civilians as can be seen in its Operation Zarb-e-Azb in Taliban and Baloch areas within its own country.






THE UPGRADES TO PRESENT DRONES TO WORK IN INDIA'S FAVOUR

At the moment, the IAF flies the Israeli-made Searcher II and Heron UAVs for reconnaissance and snooping purposes.

"With the upgrade in snooping capabilities, the forces on ground would also be able to get pin-point intelligence about hideouts in areas where men have to be involved in operations," an IAF source revealed.

The upgrades would also enable the IAF ground station handlers to operate these aircraft from far-off distances and control them through satellite communication system.





The project has been in the works for quite some time and government is also thinking of involving Indian agencies, including the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, to use their expertise in the programme.



http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/...r-force-surgical-strikes-israel/1/798687.html

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[Mikesingh]

This should have been done ages ago! I had written a paper on the urgent need to develop unarmed combat platforms more than 5 years ago as an answer to the asymmetric war being carried out by the Pakis against us in Kashmir! Seems that fell on deaf ears. But thank Allah we've finally woken up to the concept of drone warfare, which is the future.

 

[3deffect]

well its good step and india need urgent Drones coz next surgical strike may be come from sky.and india should woon Rustom too for home grown drone

 

[Akask kumar]

what happened to predator drones that india is willing to buy

 

[3deffect]

well we like (aur dikhao aur dhikhao) so india will consider best drones in cheap amount (indian bargain power) lol

 

[Butter Chicken]

what happened to predator drones that india is willing to buy

US law prohibits selling armed drones

 

[Akask kumar]

US law prohibits selling armed drones

but there was so much fuss in media after india's acceptance in MTCR.. Damn indian media..

 

[Mikesingh]

what happened to predator drones that india is willing to buy

The American MQ-9 Reaper ? It'll take at least a year more before we get these deadly drones armed with Hell-fire missiles etc. In the meanwhile we're arming the Israeli Heron drones that we have, in collaboration with the Israelis. The secret project costs about $5 billion to be equally shared by both countries.

 

[sorcerer]

but there was so much fuss in media after india's acceptance in MTCR.. Damn indian media..

We are not sure about the guard change post US election.
Things can get a bit tricky if a pussy is manning the white house. (No pun intended )

 

[G10]

So rustom is not coming any time soon.

 

[sorcerer]

India to put missiles on drones


The project costing more than `10,000 crore is being worked out in tandem with the defence major – Israeli Aircraft Industry

NEW DELHI : The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones so far used for surveillance may soon be equipped by the Indian Air Force with missiles under a top secret programme codenamed “Project Cheetah”.

The project that will cost more than Rs 10,000 crore is being worked out in tandem with defence major – Israeli Aircraft Industry (IAI), to equip the Israeli-made Searcher and Heron drones with advanced snooping capabilities and missiles that can target terrorists and their hideouts, both within India and across the borders, according to a media leak.

It says the project has been in the work for quite some time and the government has recently ordered to involve the Indian agencies, including the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics to use their experience.

Former IAF vice chief air marshal R K Sharma says the development will be the most ideal as these UAVs that identify targets will also have the capability to strike . The armed drones will be able to destroy terrorist launch pads from the height of 30,000 feet, he said; pointing out that these unmanned vehicles can fly over the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) for some time to gather accurate intelligence and then mount attack causing greater damage than what the Army troops can do.

The precision guided missiles would also help in specific elimination of the desired targets with none or minimum collateral damage in such operations, sources in the air force said. They said the drones can locate the terrorist hideout in the higher reaches of Kashmir and the missiles can be safely fired to destroy the terrorists without any fear of causing injuries to the civilians.

Sources also said the IAF had taken a cue from the United States to turn the surveillance drones into killer vehicles. They said the Americans have been using drones to regularly smoke out terrorists using their MQ-1 Predators and Global Hawk.

They said India had so far not used air power in the anti-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir or the north-east to take out the terrorists. At the moment the UAVs are basically used for reconnaissance and snooping. Once upgraded, the IAF will be able to operate these aircraft from far-off places and control them through satellite communication system.

India has, at present, a fleet over 200 drones bought from Israel and they are deployed on both eastern front with China and western front with Pakistan. The Army was the first to launch these UAVs in the 90s, starting with Searcher Mark I and Mark II that can operate at an altitude of 15,000 feet and the Heron which could operate at 30,000 feet.

The IAF followed the Army and acquired the same Israeli UAVs. The Indian Navy also has three operational squadrons of UAVs deployed along eastern and Western sea board. The Navy is now in the process of acquiring Predator XP drones used by the US Navy. It has sought 100 latest UAVs, both armed and surveillance versions worth US $2 billion from the United States.

The Army uses the drones to keep an eye on the movement of the Chinese forces in Ladakh, where physical patrolling is difficult. The incursion by the Chinese troops during the face-off in Chumar area was detected by UAVs and then confirmed by physical inspection by the pilots.
http://www.freepressjournal.in/india/india-to-put-missiles-on-drones/965348