The Indian Air Force (IAF) is ready to increase its combat edge to a great extent. The Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) has recently approved the procurement of four squadrons of **’lethal’** Stealth Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) entirely made in India.
The DAC, headed by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, has granted ‘Acceptance of Necessity’ for the purchase of about 80 ‘lethal’ drones (20 in each squadron). Developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), this stealth platform is designed to operate in heavily defended enemy airspace. This will reduce the risk for pilots and bring about a major change in initial attack strategies.
‘Ghatak’, which evolved from the earlier ‘Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft’ (AURA) programme, will primarily perform the mission of **’disabling enemy air defences’ (SEAD)**. Its ‘low-observable’ flying-wing design and internal weapons chamber will enable it to neutralize radar sites, surface-to-air missile systems and other critical targets. This will open safe pathways for manned combat aircraft like Rafale and future ‘Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft’ (AMCA).
This UCAV is expected to weigh less than 15 tonnes (about 13 tonnes as per some estimates), and will be powered by a ‘dry variant’ of the indigenous **’Kaveri’** turbofan engine. It is based on technologies that were validated by the **’Stealth Wing Flying Testbed’ (SWiFT)**. SWiFT had successfully demonstrated the autonomous flight control capability of the tailless ‘flying-wing’ design, in trials that began in Chitradurga, Karnataka from July 2022.
Ongoing conflicts around the world, including the Russia-Ukraine War and ongoing operations in West Asia, coupled with China’s military modernization, have underlined the growing importance of autonomous and stealth systems in modern warfare. Defense experts believe that in future military operations, reliance on unmanned platforms working in conjunction with manned aircraft will continue to increase.
Although the large-scale prototype development work is still ongoing, this approval by DAC will mark an important milestone in India’s efforts to develop next generation air capabilities towards self-reliance. The production is expected to involve a public-private partnership, using a high level of indigenous content in the airframe, avionics and propulsion. The ‘Ghatak’ program adds India to the select group of countries that are developing indigenous stealth UCAVs.
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