The Indian Navy has created history by successfully testing the landing and take-off of an indigenously built Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from the deck of its aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
The carrier has reached full operational status and will be used for naval wargames in Milan in February 2024, according to media reports.
Although completed earlier this year, the landing has been kept secret. The Indian Navy has been quietly building up its drone arsenal.
It has been studying designs for landing platform docks (LPDs) to accommodate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and unmanned fighter jets.
The Indian Navy acquired two fixed-wing UAV variants from Israel, called Searcher and Heron, for use in maritime operations in the 2000s. These UAVs were operated by land-based naval squadrons using electro-optical cameras and communications intelligence (COMINT).
The Indian Navy issued a Request for Information (RFI) on 29 June 2022 to procure 40 Naval Unmanned Aerial Systems (NSUAS) for warships longer than 100 metres.
The Request for Information (RFI) specified that the NUAS would be used for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), target acquisition, signals intelligence (SIGINT) and surveillance operations for the Naval Task Force.
The RFI document also stated that support for anti-terrorism, anti-piracy and search and rescue (SAR) operations would be provided as secondary activities.