ideaForge has bagged the contract for delivering 200 drones that are capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) to the Indian Army, the company announced in a press release on March 3. As part of the two-year contract, ideaForge will deliver its 100 SWITCH UAV systems to the Indian Army in 2022, and the next 100 in 2023, to augment its surveillance capabilities. MediaNama reached out to ideaForge for insight into the monetary component of the contract, but the representative refused to divulge any information in that regard. Additionally, this is the third such contract that ideaForge has had with the Indian Army. The release said that ideaForge won this contract after a global tender was floated, against stiff competition from Israel, Russia, Ukraine, and France. The representative said that the procurement process took five years to complete because of various compliance and regulatory requirements of the Indian Army. This announcement comes a month after the Union Budget of 2022 wherein the Indian Government announced that 68% of its Defence Capital Procurement budget would be reserved for domestic organisations. UAVs are indispensable for intelligence and surveillance reconnaissance: Defence official "UAVs are indispensable for ISR. This procurement was a long and intensive procedure to procure the largest number of mini-VTOL UAVs," a defence official was quoted as saying in the release. The release also added that in the last five years, the SWITCH UAV was the only system that passed the rigorous testing and fielding trials that the Indian Army requested. What else…
