IAF Invites Bids To Procure 10 Anti-Drone Systems After Alarmed With Jammu Airbase Attack

The IAF has issued a request for information (RFI) for Indian vendors for Counter Unarmed Aircraft System (CUAS) that can be armed with laser directed energy weapons to bring down rogue drones. 

Drone

New Delhi: Alarmed with the drone attack at the Indian Air Force base in Jammu, the Indian Air Force has decided to procure 10 anti-drone systems to stop such attacks in future in the border areas.

In line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the IAF has issued a request for information (RFI) for Indian vendors for Counter Unarmed Aircraft System (CUAS) that can be armed with laser directed energy weapons to bring down rogue drones. 

The force in the issued RFI stated that, "The CUAS is intended to detect, track, identify, designate and neutralize hostile UAS. Laser Directed Energy Weapon (Laser-DEW) is essentially required as a kill option." 

It further stated that the anti-drone system should be equipped with Global Navigation Satellite Jammer System (GNSS) and Radio Frequency jammers as a soft kill option and Laser-based Directed Energy Weapon (Laser-DEW) as a hard kill option. 

"It should provide a multi-sensor, multi-kill solution to enforce effective no fly zones for unmanned aircraft while inflicting minimal collateral damage to the surrounding environment. It should generate a composite air situational picture for the operator and generate alerts based on user defined parameters," the RFI stated. 

The systems should be equipped with Phased Array Radar, RF sensor, Electro Optical and Infra-Red (EO/IR) system.

The call for bid has come a week after two low-intensity attacks happened at in the technical area of Jammu Air Force Station. At least two Indian Air Force personnel were injured while the roof of a building was damaged in what is suspected to be a terror attack.