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Defence Forces
Armed with ICT Anyone who watches what is going on in tech should not be surprised by the fact that defence forces around the world are racing to keep up with the blazing pace of ICT advances Anoop Verma, Elets News Network (ENN)
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he top new military trend is one that is known for its economy of scale. It consists of systems that are packed with cutting edge innovations from ICT, and are smaller, remote-controlled and brimful of intelligence. This is indeed, a new era. The era of rather small and unmanned drones. The Indian Air Force is currently flying the Israeli-made Searcher II and Heron for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes. About 100 Searchers are in operation on Indian borders in western, northern and eastern regions. According to a senior IAF official, “IAF is ready to induct more drones in view of their capability of using high-technology to perform specific tasks on the borders.” The ICT technology being used in modern drones has come so far that basic computer knowledge is no longer essential for remotely flying an UAV. In many cases, military personnel are able to control the drones and direct their deadly payload from thousands of miles away by using just a mouse, joystick and ergonomic pad. “ICT is the single most important factor for the success of military operations in air, ground or water. Access to real-time, authentic and secure information is necessary for enabling the military commander to take the most crucial decisions. In net-centric
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world, commanders at all levels must be integrated through ICT so that they can have a common picture of the operation being carried out,” says Major General R C Padhi.
Drones – hi-tech and deadly A wide array of drones are being manufactured by the Israeli defence establishment, including one of world’s largest and most technologically advanced drones, the Heron TP Eitan, which costs an estimated $35 million. With a wingspan of 26 meters (85 ft.), the Heron TP Eitan is of the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet and can reach an altitude of 12,000 meters. But the biggest manufacturer and user of high-tech drones is the United States. A recently released Congressional report states that drones now account for more than 31 percent of all military craft in USA. This means that one in three aircrafts in USA are drones. We can only imagine the kind of cutting edge ICT that goes into these drones. The technology is a classified secret. Equipped with sensors and micro-cameras to detect enemies, nuclear weapons or victims in rubble, these remotely piloted drones are capable of transmitting live video, audio and other data from hostile territory in all kinds of weather conditions, they are also capable shooting at targets with flawless accuracy. Military technicians sitting in the other side
of the world can control the Predator drones by using a computer and a joystick. Only two miles from the cow pasture in Ohio, where the Wright Brothers learned to fly, there is the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. There researchers are working at a project on miniature unmanned drones, which are of the size of insects and birds, but are capable of spying and even firing missiles from air. These miniature drones are inspired by nature, in the sense that they replicate the flight mechanics of different insects and birds. Some of the drones even look like the inhabitants of the natural world. For good reason, the base’s indoor flight lab is called “micro-aviary.” The micro-aviary is equipped with 60 motion-capture cameras to track every movement made by the tiny robots. The drones themselves are programmed by a computer to fly and they can execute all kinds of acrobatics in the air. The rapid miniaturisation of the aerial drones due to new advancements in IT technologies is transforming the way we address our security related concerns and fight wars. Presently we are having drones that can loiter in the sky for more than 24 hours and provide real-time all-weather surveillance and reconnaissance over entire cities. The California based AeroVironment Inc. had unveiled the hummingbird drone in February this year.