Army deploys indigenous, hi-tech drones along J-K's western, norther borders

Indigenous drones have been deployed along the border in the northern and the western sectors of Jammu and Kashmir to counter adversaries, a senior Army officer said on Wednesday.

The Indian Army is also focussing on artificial intelligence and has begun a process in this direction.

"High-tech drones are deployed on our northern and western borders to counter various operations of either the adversary or to carry out surveillance. They have been indigenously manufactured," Northern Command Chief of Staff Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta told reporters.

He was replying to a question on the alleged failure of the Indian industry to produce high-tech drones meant to safeguard the borders and carry out operational tasks.

"We have learnt lessons from various conflicts," he said and added that the Indian Army is aware of the measures required.

"It is not that these are not being developed in-house," he said.

Lt Gen Sengupta said there has been a lot of research in logistic drones and autonomous vehicles since the last symposium.

"We can also use the logistic drones and we are doing it. We have different challenges for their use in high-altitude areas. We hope that we overcome these challenges through this symposium. We will be able to carry bigger loads through logistic drones to posts in high-altitude areas for operational needs," he added.

Northern Command Major General (General Staff) Maj Gen SBK Singh said the Army has identified certain weapons for procurement.

"One of them is known as ASMI. It is a combination of two weapons. We will display it in a symposium this time," he said.

"As far as other weapons systems are concerned, we don't have a clear cut solution for them as of now," he added.

On the use of artificial intelligence, he said the Army headquarters conducted a competition on the subject recently.

"Fifty experts took part in the competition. We shared the inputs with the industry. They are giving solutions. We are on track as far as artificial intelligence is concerned," Maj Gen Singh added.

He added that the Northern Command has also begun reaching out to academic institutes and started evolving problem statements towards meaningful requirement-oriented research with academia.