Soon, spy drones along Gujarat coast

NEW DELHI: India is now deploying naval spy drones on the Gujarat coast to detect terror and conventional threats emanating from sea from across the border in real-time.

Timely detection of maritime threats is critical to neutralize them with counter-measures before they come anywhere near the coast or crucial offshore installations.

The naval UAV ( unmanned aerial vehicle) squadron, named INAS 343, with a mix of Israeli Searcher and Heron drones, will be formally commissioned at the coastal city of Porbandar on January 17, said sources.

This new UAV station comes at a time when India is trying to plug holes in its coastal security architecture, which were exposed by the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai, with an array of measures ranging from coastal radar networks to an extensive maritime intelligence grid.

Navy recently inducted two more advanced Herons, which are strategic MALE (medium-altitude, long endurance) UAVs and carry a payload of 250kg for around 50 hours of continuous flight, to its already existing fleet of eight Searcher-IIs and four Herons.

The first naval UAV squadron (INAS 342) has been operational at Kochi for the last few years. After Kochi and Porbandar, new naval UAV squadrons are earmarked for Uchipuli in Tamil Nadu and Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As part of Navy's three-tier aerial surveillance grid for the Indian Ocean Region, the drones are already being used for innermost layer reconnaissance up to 200 nautical miles.