Army to have unmanned surveillance vehicle

CHENNAI: The armed forces to have unmanned combat vehicle for surveillance and mine detection purposes in war fields next year, official at Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment near here has said.

The army has asked to develop an unmanned vehicle to be used in war field for surveillance and mine detection, CVRDE director S Sundaresh told reporters on Saturday.

"Under the Rs 60 crore-project started last year, We will have one battle tank designated as base vehicle having wireless contact with three other tanks that will be used for surveillance, checking nuclear radiation and clearing mines, respectively," he said.

These tanks would be ready by 2009, following which they would be subjected to "in-plant" trials at the CVRDE facility at Avadi.

"We are hopeful that the tanks would be inducted in the Army by 2011," Sundaresh said.

The all-terrain vehicle would have the capability to decide its own combat strategy at a later point of time, he added.

The Research & Development Establishment (Engineers), Pune, was developing a small sized combat vehicle which could "break through" buildings and other places where big tanks lacked access and therefore the vehicle could be used during counter-insurgency moves to trap and kill terrorists, Sundaresh said.