India to shortly deploy new Israeli Heron drones in Ladakh, LAC sector

NEW DELHI: The Indian forces are set to get a major boost to their surveillance capabilities as they are shortly going to receive their advanced Heron drones from Israel for keeping an eye on the Chinese activities in the Ladakh sector and other areas along the Line of Actual Control with China.

Despite the delays caused due to the ongoing global pandemic, the Indian forces are going to get four Israeli drones soon for deployment in the Eastern Ladakh and other sectors along the LAC government sources told ANI.

The drones arriving shortly are more advanced than the Herons in the existing inventory and their anti-jamming capability is much better than their previous versions, the sources said.

The acquisition of these drones had been done under the emergency financial powers granted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to the defence forces under which they can buy equipment and systems worth Rs 500 crores to upgrade their warfighting capabilities, amid ongoing border conflict with China, they added.

According to sources, the other small or mini drones are being acquired from the US that will be provided at the Battalion level to the troops on the ground and the hand-operated drones would be used to attain awareness about a specific location or area in their respective areas of responsibility.

The Indian defence forces have been taking these initiatives to acquire weapon systems that can help them in the ongoing conflict with China. The last time such a facility was given to the defence forces was in 2019 right after the Balakot airstrikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan.

Using the same facility, the Indian Navy has leased two Predator drones which have been taken from American firm General Atomics.

The Indian Air Force had exercised the same powers to acquire a large number of anti-tank guided missiles, long-range precision-guided artillery shells along with the Hammer air to ground standoff missiles with a strike range of around 70 kilometres.