New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) sought 10 anti-drone systems that can be armed with laser directed energy weapon to destroy drones.
A day after the so-celled drone attack on its base in Jammu on June 27, the IAF floated a Request for Information (RFI) to seek responses from Indian companies for Made in India counter-drone system called Counter Unarmed Aircraft System (CUAS). As per the RFI, the IAF would be deploying these systems at different air bases across the country.
“The CUAS is intended to detect, track, identify, designate and neutralize hostile UAS. Laser Directed Energy Weapon (Laser-DEW) is essentially required as a kill option,” the RFI says.
The RFI mentions that the systems should be equipped with Global Navigation Satellite Jammer System (GNSS) and Radio Frequency jammers as a soft kill option and Laser based Directed Energy Weapon (Laser-DEW) as a hard kill option to destroy the drones.
“It should provide a multi-sensor, multi-kill solution to enforce effective no fly zones for unmanned aircraft while inflicting minimal collateral damage to the surrounding environment. It should generate a composite air situational picture for the operator and generate alerts based on user defined parameters,” the RFI say.
All the ten CUAS are required in mobile configuration mounted on indigenous vehicles with cross-country capability and powered by indigenous Electrical Power Supply (EPS) system. The entire system should be road and air transportable. The design should include modularity for quick deployment and withdrawal, the RFI says.
Among the other specifications, the RFI also mentions that the radar should have 360 degree coverage with a range of 5 km for a mini unmanned aircraft system. Mini drones are extremely difficult to detect as they are low flying, slow moving objects and can miss the radars. Web Desk
