“Easier at a distance for people to believe god is on their side. You miss the battle and know him to be benevolent”.
- Sir Thomas Langley, World Without End
The above quote perhaps captures the essence of unmanned military aircraft; that of fighting wars at a distance. This talk will discuss a range of military drones used for reconnaissance to armed unmanned aircraft systems for combat use. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), in military operations has become enmeshed in controversy. There has been increasing unease in various quarters as to the moral, ethical and legal issues believed to be associated with remote killing. Further to this, there is the prospect in the future of the unmanned vehicle itself being capable of targeting and attacking, with no input from a human.
About the speaker
Prof P M Soundar Rajan is a renowned expert and a pioneer of indigenisation and self-reliance in Combat Aircraft Avionics and Airborne Electronic Warfare in India. He commenced his professional career in 1973 with DRDO, Bangalore, In his 40+-year-long professional career with DRDO, he assumed various leadership roles with increasing responsibilities in Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE). At ADE, he developed instrumentation and telemetry systems for flight evaluation of UAVs, Jaguar aircraft and the LCA avionics system. At DARE, he made significant contributions to the indigenisation efforts of DRDO by the successful completion of avionics modernisation and the weaponisation of Su-30MKI and MiG-27 aircrafts indigenously. As the Director of DARE, he was instrumental in establishing DARE as a “Centre of Excellence” for Combat Aircraft Avionics and advanced Digital Electronic Warfare systems. He is the recipient of AGNI Award for excellence in Self Reliance for the year 2003 and DRDO Performance Excellence Award for the year 2008.
Under the International Strategy and Security Studies Programme at NIAS, Prof Soundar Rajan is progressing work in the areas of Next Generation Avionics for futuristic combat aircraft and UCAVs, Cognitive Radar and EW Systems, and Aerospace and Weapon System Cyber Security.