India Tops List Of Drone-Importing Nations

Some of India's eyes in the sky:

NETRA: An autonomous UAV developed jointly by ideaForge Technologies and Defence Research and Development Organisation. Can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter. It can also fly and return to base on its own. Currently used by Indian armed and paramilitary forces. The National Disaster Response Force used the Netra drone during the 2013 Uttarakhand floods to identify survivors and assess damage. It was also deployed during the Bhuj floods in 2013 by the Gujarat government.

NISHANT: Used for day/night reconnaissance, target tracking and extraction of target coordinates, artillery fire correction and damage assessment. Nishant is being inducted into the Indian army, with 4 UAV units.

PANCHI: Wheeled-version of Nishant. Capable of taking-off and landing from small airstrips. First flight in December 2014.

RUSTOM I: All-weather, medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV. It will operate at medium-to-long ranges and gather near real-time high-quality imagery and radio signals. It will perform a range of military missions.

RUSTOM II: Being designed to operate at up to 30,000 feet for 24 hours at a stretch.

AURA: A combat drone capable of flying at 30,000 feet and launching missiles, bombs and guided missiles.

LAKSHYA: Remotely operated and used as a target to train gun and missile crew and air-defence pilots for the three services.

Armed UAVs were exported for the first time in 2007, when US delivered two MQ-9 Reapers to the UK. The MQ-9 was used by the UK forces in Afghanistan. China became the second-largest exporter of armed UAVs in 2014, when it delivered five drones to Nigeria, which deployed UAVs against Boko Haram, a terrorist outfit.

Drone attacks have been criticised around the world for accidentally killing civilians while hunting suspected terrorists. More than 2,400 people (273 civilians) have been killed in 390 drone attacks in 5 years (2009-14) under the Obama administration, according to a report by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The use of drones/UAVs in India is mainly confined to surveillance and reconnaissance, unlike the US, which uses armed drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, according to Sameer Patil, associate fellow on national security, ethnic and terrorism studies at Gateway House and former assistant director at the National Security Council Secretariat in the Prime Minister's Office.

Drones used along the India-Pakistan border are simpler than the ones used on the Chinese border in Ladakh, where they require long endurance and high-altitude capability, Patil said.

UAV squadrons in India mainly operate with Herons and Searcher MK IIs from Israel. However, there are also some UAVs/drones that have been indigenously developed or are under development. As use grows, more drones are coming, also the armed ones.

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