With an aim to boost military capabilities in high altitude areas like northern borders, the ‘Him-drone-a-thon-2’ event was conceptualised by the army design bureau at Army headquarters and then in northern command, 14 corps AOR (area of responsibility). Following this, the Army conducted a drone exhibition at an altitude of 15,400 feet at Wari La in Ladakh on Tuesday.
Colonel Abhishek Gunjan, part of the ‘Him-drone-a-thon 2’ organising team, said, “The aim of this event is to give the opportunity to various companies of the Indian drone industry to showcase their products and to give a capability demonstration as to whether the products are fit for operations at this altitude or not.”
“Large numbers of our Army deployed along the northern borders and areas of this border are all at a high altitude ranging from nine thousand feet to fifteen thousand feet and beyond. So we need drones that can operate in areas that are beyond fifteen thousand feet,” he added.
“A total of 18 industries have come for the demonstration; they have displayed their capabilities across five categories like surveillance, logistics, loitering munitions, swarm, and for first-person view (FPV) operations,” Gunjan said.
He further said, “Drone industries are still developing the drones. We know that we do not have adequate numbers right now and we are looking for drones that are fit for operations in high altitude areas and this event gives us an opportunity to also earmark or select certain drones that are fit for high altitude operations. Those who successfully demonstrate their capability will be shortlisted.”
Aditya Vanga, Engineer at TARA UAV, said, “Our Army has given us an excellent opportunity to showcase our drone, showcase our expertise..at challenging altitude. We build our drone to perform at this altitude. The shape of our drone is like a helicopter and can fly for two hours. It can take winds of 80 km/h and this will be stable.”
“Its camera can look eight km away. It can scout the border and this will work day and night. The entire aim is also to facilitate search and rescue operations. This drone can also lift 15 kg of weight to one kilometre high. We will also use this drone for commercial purposes, like we can do aerial mapping as well,” he added
