Indian Last of All Nishant Drones Crashed

The Nishant was supposed to be the Indian Army’s premier, domestically-produced surveillance drone. But now it can’t be because all of them, every single one, crashed.

A Nishant Drone while flying.

The product of a development program dating to 1995 from India’s state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization, the Nishant was meant to be a medium-altitude drone in a similar class to the Israeli Heron, which India also operates.

The difference being that India would produce the Nishant itself, freeing the country from its dependence on foreign unmanned vehicles, just as China and Pakistan race ahead producing drones of their own.

During its brief lifespan, the catapult-launched Nishant could stay in the air for four-and-a-half hours. The drone carried no weapons. Returning to base, the Nishant would not land like an airplane, but deploy a parachute and float to earth.

It could not carry weapons, as it functioned strictly in a reconnaissance role — spotting for artillery, snooping on enemy troops and hoovering up electronic and signal information from the battlefield. Or at least, that was the plan.

Had Nishant worked out, the Indian Army would have bought a total of twelve and sent them to disputed Kashmir region and to track Maoist rebels in India’s interior.

But it was not to be. The four prototype Nishants entered service in 2011, and then started falling — not floating — out of the sky. The first two went down near the Pakistani border in April 2015. The third Nishant crashed in Rajasthan in early November.

There was only one left … and that crashed on Nov. 19.

Nishant drones, one of them crashed with what appears to be an undeployed parachute. Photos via Indian defense forums
The cause of the last crash appeared to be a parachute which failed to properly deploy.

“In the past DRDO has blamed poor handling by the Army for the loss of at least two systems,” the Economic Times reported. “However, the Army has contended that the system has failed to perform and has technical problemsduring the recovery phase that have not been sorted out.”

To the Army’s credit, it already operates dozens of Israeli drones with no apparent troubles. Retired Lt. Gen. P.C. Katoch, who led the Indian Army’s information systems directorate, blasted the DRDO for a “gross lack of accountability,” producing “schoolboy level” inventions and then bragging about its accomplishments with “false propaganda.”

“For their part, the DRDO in its usual manner has blamed the user for poor handling of the system, a point categorically denied by the Army,” Katoch wrote at SP’s Aviation magazine. “The irony is that this game has been [going] on for decades with no one held accountable in the DRDO.”

“The irony here is that while this monolith of DRDO cannot produce a worthwhile drone in 20 years, Pakistan has already developed and deployed its own armed drone.” Kaotch was referring to the Burraq drone, which Islamabad developed from the Chinese CH-3.

Nishant, however, is dead. With no more left and an obvious lack of faith in the drone, the Indian Army canceled the project for good.

Source: http://defence.pk/threads/every-one-of-india%E2%80%99s-nishant-drones-has-crashed.412783/#ixzz3uOIJs0GF

Pakistan: Domestic Drones Ready (A report published in New York Times November, 2014)

The Pakistani military deployed its first fleet of domestically developed drones on Monday. The new Burraq and Shahpar drones will be used by Pakistan’s army and air force, the military said in a statement. It was unclear whether the aircraft are armed or unarmed, and military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

 

Pakistani Burraq Drone In-Flight

 

Pakistan has struggled with a lack of precision munitions and advanced targeting technology, according to Pakistani military officials and civilians involved in the domestic drone industry. Even if Pakistan had the technology, the small drones it has developed would have trouble carrying the kinds of missiles fired by the American aircraft. The Pakistani drones also have much more limited range than those developed by the United States. 

 

 Chinese CH-3 UCAV at Air Show

The announcement coincided with a move by the Pakistani police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province to prevent activists who were protesting against American drone strikes from blocking trucks carrying NATO troop supplies to and from Afghanistan. The federal government has also criticized American drone strikes, but the actions by the police on Monday indicated that the government had decided to intervene to stop the NATO blockade in order to avert a dispute with the United States and other NATO countries.

Pakistan-Made Drones Successfully Fight Taliban, A VOR Report

Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) has suffered a terrible blow from the Pakistan-made drones this Tuesday, US military experts and foreign delegates impressed by the achievements of the country’s military technologies. TTP targets in Tirah and Mir Ali have been recently eliminated, a terrible blow to the umbrella organization that provokes unrest in the region. Taliban were astounded by the efficiency of the strikes, judging from the enemy’s radio intelligence after the attack, Islamabad sources state. The CIA chief Brennen has recently been to Rawalpindi, and naturally it made a lot of people wonder if Pakistan Army received intelligence help from the US. But a senior security official explained it was a courtesy and insisted that Pakistan had used its own ‘parindahs’ (birds) to deal with the Islamists.

 

Pakistani Made Shahpar Drone

 

This statements are tough to deny, since back in November 2013 Washington cared to speak on the matter in detail, going far as to grant Pakistan the most flattering approval one could imagine. “After years of preparation, the Strategically Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were formally announced by Gen Ashfaq Kayani, chief of Pakistan’s military. The drones, called ‘Burraq and Shahpar’, will not be armed and are to be used only for surveillance, military officials said.” “It is a landmark and a historic event, wherein a very effective force multiplier has been added to the inventory of the armed forces,” the Pakistani military said, noting that the accurate data by the Pakistani drones was the lion’s share of the success. Brig Muhammad Saad, a former senior officer in the Pakistani military confessed the Pakistani already had a certain type of drones before 2012, but they were not as advanced as the new ones are.

Skeptics insist that Pakistan still has a lot to learn if the country’s army wants to explore the full potential of the drone technology. Still, some of them reluctantly note that even the current type of drones can be equipped with unsophisticated weaponry that will help the Pakistani forces to outmaneuver their Islamist enemies. The foreign delegates from the allied countries were impressed by Pakistani achievements when last shown the results of the work, the official at the four-day International Defense Exhibition and Seminar said. “They were briefed about a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that can be armed and has the capability to carry a weapon payload.” The official said Pakistan wanted to prove that he can protect himself from acts of aggression and terrorism, especially to his allies like Turkey and the Gulf, and is likely to continue the development of the drone technology in the future.

Pakistan deploys first home-made drones

Pakistan launched its first domestically produced drones on Monday, as police cracked down on demonstrators protesting US drone strikes targeting Islamic militants on Pakistani territory.

The new drones are called the Burraq and Shahpar and will be used by the Pakistani army and air force, the military said in a statement on Monday, although they did not specify if the drones will be armed or unarmed.

Shahpar (Image from gids.com.pk)

The statement from the military comes as the police prevented protesters trying to block trucks carrying NATO supplies to and from troops stationed in neighboring Afghanistan.

The protests began on Saturday when the Pakistani cricket star turned politician Imran Khan led thousands of demonstrators to block a road used to ship goods to and from Afghanistan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan.

Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has said it will block NATO trucks until the US ends drone strikes. His group has been a vocal critic of US drone strikes but only began direct action last Saturday. 

Activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) arrive to attend a protest rally in Peshawar on November 23, 2013 (AFP Photo / A Majeed)

And on Sunday members of his party stopped trucks and roughed up drivers at a toll on the outskirts of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Police were present at the scene but did not attempt to stop the protesters.

But police officer Behram Khan said as of Monday police would only permit peaceful protests by the side of the road and would not allow people to stop trucks as happened Sunday. He added that they had opened an investigation into the activist’s actions on Sunday that could lead to criminal charges.

The CIA began targeting Islamic militants in drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal North West regions in 2004. They have been a highly controversial because of their violation of Pakistani sovereignty and the number of civilian casualties. Estimates of the number of civilians killed because of US drone strikes vary widely between 290 and almost 900. 

 
But the issue is complicated because the Pakistani government is known to have sanctioned some drone attacks but not others.

Instead of carrying out the attacks themselves, Pakistan has asked the US to provide it with armed drones, saying that they would be more effective in carrying out attacks on militants. However, Washington has refused because of the sensitive nature of the technology used in drones and doubts whether Pakistan can reliably target US enemies.

For its own part Pakistan has been trying to develop its own drones but has struggled with the advanced technology required for their manufacture. Pakistani military officials speaking on condition of anonymity told AP that they have been struggling with the precision munitions required in drones and of developing a done large enough to carry accurate missiles and with a long enough range.

Military using made-in-Pakistan drones against TTP (An Article by Shaheen Sehbai)

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is making extensive and precise use of its own indigenous drones in the current surgical strikes against the Taliban, security officials and experts confirmed on Tuesday.   

Shahpar (Image from gids.com.pk)

A top official said ground intelligence, combined with accurate data by the Pakistani drones, had made it possible to take out the TTP targets in Tirah and Mir Ali recently, creating a scare among the TTP ranks not seen before.

Sources in Islamabad say the telephone chatter after these strikes had shown that the Taliban were in disarray as they were telling each other if such precise strikes continued, they would be eliminated without even a fight.

A senior security official, when asked by me whether in the latest touch and go visit by the CIA chief Brennen to Rawalpindi, had the Pakistan Army asked for intelligence help from the US drone apparatus to pinpoint the TTP hideouts, the response was ‘no’.

“The CIA chief’s visit was just a courtesy call on the army chief but Pakistan is using its own ‘parindahs’ (birds) for the strikes that have been conducted. We have effective drones that can help immensely in such situations.”

The official was referring obviously to the capability Pakistan had announced in 2012 and confirmed in November 2013 when two locally-produced drones were displayed at an arms exhibition in Karachi.

According to a Washington Post report of the event on Nov 26: “After years of preparation, the Strategically Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were formally announced by Gen Ashfaq Kayani, chief of Pakistan’s military. The drones, called ‘Burraq and Shahpar’, will not be armed and are to be used only for surveillance, military officials said.”

“The development of the drones, thought to have a range of about 75 miles, represents a milestone for the country’s military and scientists,” the Post quoted Pakistani and Western analysts.

“It is a landmark and a historic event, wherein a very effective force multiplier has been added to the inventory of the armed forces,” the Pakistani military then said in a statement.

Pakistan’s military first revealed its drone technology at a trade show in 2012, but in November last year the formal unveiling coincided with an ongoing farewell tour by Gen Kayani, who was retiring after two terms as army chief, the Post reported.

Brig Muhammad Saad, a former senior officer in the Pakistani military familiar with the subject, was quoted as saying that the country already had less-sophisticated drones for intelligence gathering, with a range of about six miles.

The newer models, he said, will prove useful for ‘collecting more operational intelligence’ that could help guide helicopter gunships and fighter jets to specific targets. This is a great achievement, and the drones can be used instead of surveillance jets and fighter jets that would be costlier to fly.”

Experts say Pakistan is still years away from being able to develop armed drones but Washington Post quoted Peter W Singer, a security analyst at the Brookings Institution, saying most surveillance drones can be armed, though they will lack the precision of US-developed models.

“Almost any unmanned system can be armed in a crude style, such as dropping a bomb or even turning it into an equivalent of a cruise missile that you fly into the target,” said Singer, adding that the announcement will probably add to growing fears about proliferation of drone technology.

In November of 2012, London’s Guardian newspaper reported that military officials had briefed some of Pakistan’s closest allies about efforts by the army to develop its own combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

“The foreign delegates were quite excited by what Pakistan has achieved,” said the official, who was closely involved with organising the four-day International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (Ideas). “They were briefed about a UAV that can be armed and has the capability to carry a weapon payload.”

The official said Pakistan wanted to demonstrate to friendly countries, principally Turkey and the Gulf, that it can be self-sufficient in a technology that is revolutionising warfare and which is currently dominated by a handful of countries that do not readily share the capability.

A Pakistan Army colonel, who had just finished a tour of the country’s border region, was quoted by the Guardian as saying such small drones were a vital tool. “We have these small drones, but not enough of them and we do not always get them when we have operations,” said the colonel in Nov 2012. “They are excellent for observing their movements and deployments.”

But now it is 2014 and the Pakistan Army has as many of these birds as it needs. This will be the latest and the most effective tool in this fight against terrorism.