Anantha Krishnan M By

BANGALORE: The country’s security agencies, including the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force and National Security Guards, are likely to have small wings of micro and mini air vehicles (MAVs) under their commands soon. Developed jointly by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), these unmanned desi MAVs will soon get on to a mass production mode at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) facilities.

The HAL is expected to sign an MoU with the ADE and NAL on transfer of technology to manufacture custom-built MAVs.Under a 2008 programme sanctioned with an initial seed money of `20 crore, the ADE-NAL combo developed three micro air vehicles namely Black Kite, Golden Hawk and Pushpak.

The team also developed two mini air vehicles, Indian Eagle (previously Imperial Eagle) and Sly Bird. In the last six years, these MAVs underwent development trials demonstrating their capabilities. Each MAV, including the ground support systems, is expected to cost between `5 and 10 lakh depending on their configuration.In an exclusive interview to Express, ADE Associate Director V S Chandrashekar said the MAVs offer great advantages for undertaking security missions.

“They are compact, man-portable (can be carried in a backpack with just two persons required for operation), easy to unpack and can be deployed within 10 to 15 minutes. They are difficult to be detected and very effective for close range and low-level surveillance,” Chandrashekar, who holds the rank of an Outstanding Scientist in the ADE, said.

In addition to the CRPF, NSG and BSF, some of the state police agencies also have shown interest in deploying these systems. “Our teams have been giving functional demonstration of the MAVs to these agencies. The ownership cost of these MAVs is significantly less compared to the bigger unmanned aerial vehicles. Thus multiple vehicles could be deployed for completing a mission.

Police teams can fly these MAVs over urban populace and assess issues of safety and collateral damage during accidents or riots. The advanced data helps to plan missions before mass deployment of forces,” Chandrashekar said.