As India prepares to celebrate the 78th Independence Day, the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) unveiled that it is making potent swadeshi (indigenous) Kamikaze Drones, do-and-die unmanned aerial vehicles with home-built engines that can power them to fly up to 1,000 kilometres.
Loitering munitions are do-and-die machines. They have been widely used in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. These unmanned aerial vehicles have been used extensively by the Ukrainians to target Russian infantry and armoured vehicles.
They loiter in the general area of interest for an extended period, carry explosives and ram the target when commanded by a human controller sitting far away. They can be sent in swarms, i.e. multiple drones and attack enemy installations by overwhelming the radars and enemy defences.
The Kamikaze suicide missions were first seen towards the end of World War II when the pilots of a depleted Japanese air force would ram their fighter planes on Allied aircraft and ships.
Dr Abhay Pashilkar, Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories, who is spearheading the research says, "India is developing these fully indigenous kamikaze drones, they are a game-changing 21st century new age war machine".
The Indian kamikaze drone will be around 2.8 meters long with a wingspan of 3.5 meters, weigh about 120 kg and carry an explosive charge of 25 kilograms.
Dr Pashilkar told NDTV, that the Indian loitering munition will have an endurance of about nine hours meaning, that once launched, it can continuously hover in the area of interest. After the target is identified, the controller after authorization can send the do-and-die drone on its suicide mission.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has given in-principle approval for launching a project on Loitering Munitions or kamikaze drones with CSIR-NAL as the nodal laboratory and participation from all the major engineering laboratories of CSIR. This capability will address our national security needs.
The Indian kamikaze drone will use a 30-horsepower Wankel Engine designed and developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories and can fly continuously for 1,000 kilometres with a maximum speed of 180 kilometres per hour.
The Indian version will be able to work in GPS-denied scenarios and can use the Indian NAViC for navigating and homing on to the target.
"Such drones deployed by other nations have shown great potential in the modern ongoing wars elsewhere," asserts Dr Pashilkar.