While the Army has been using drones for surveillance operations over the past 20 years, recent conflicts along India's borders have driven the defence forces to adopt fixed-wing and swarm drones for attacks. As questions over retaliation arise after India suffered its first-ever drone strike on its territory with an attack on an Indian Air Force base in Jammu, it is important to note that the Indian Army, recently, has been amping up its arsenal to acquire artificial intelligence-equipped drones that can be deployed during various attacking scenarios. MediaNama in the past one-and-a-half months has come across and reviewed two tenders floated by the Indian Army which lists out its requirement for — Two fixed-wing drones for high altitude area (HAA) with capabilities of explosive payload delivery, and Swarm drones for kinetic strikes These tenders are available publicly on the defproc.gov.in website, the official defence procurement website. Both types of drones have been listed for the use of the Simulator Development Division (SDD) of the Indian Army. The Indian Army describes the Secunderabad-based SDD as the nodal agency for the development of simulators for the army. Essentially, what it means is that drones will be used for training and R&D purposes for army personnel. Various reports on Monday said that a terror attack took place at an air force base in Jammu with the use of drones in the early hours of Sunday. Two IAF personnel suffered minor injuries in the explosions that took place at the base at around…
