NEW DELHI, FEB 3
The armed forces have to work together, the newly-appointed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat said. He is ensuring the large Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) fleets of the army, navy and air force work together with some level of cohesion, a Defence Aviation Post report said.
As part of the process, two UAV hubs are likely to be created, one in Gujarat and the other in Uttar Pradesh, to ensure there is a pooling of resources and the information and intelligence gathered by the UAVs. Most of the UAVs with the armed forces are the Searcher II and the Heron, both made in Israel, and with the creation of the hubs, the possibility of better servicing of the UAVs and the easier sharing of hard information from the photographs taken by them will benefit all the services.
The joint pool of information could, theoretically at least, be used by all three services and if necessary, by the Coast Guard, which currently in the Defence Ministry, though there is some talk of the Home Ministry taking it over. This will save time, making the intelligence gathered more “actionable.,” Officers of all three services are expected to man the hubs. The Gujarat hub could be in Ahmedabad and a decision on the one in UP is still awaited.
The CDS has already looked at a joint Air Defence Command (ADC) and discussions on the subject have already begun. This could reduce reaction-time, an essential element during military operations. He has also considered resource-saving schemes in military transportation, using available civilian resources. The creation of the UAV hub is in line with the kind of information sharing there is with satellites – the Defence Image Processing and Analysis Centre (DIPAC) – and with sensors – the Department of Signals Intelligence – are already tri-service organisations under the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) headed by a lieutenant-general and reporting to the CDS.
