Editor’s Note
We seldom stop to consider the potential disruptive impact of the innovations we develop, seeing them as largely positive; such in case of with drones. While drones are proving to be useful for military, commercial, civilian, and even humanitarian activities, their unregulated use carries serious consequences that need to be addressed urgently. This piece examines drone operations in India and analyses the major policy gaps in the country’s evolving policy framework.
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The armed forces have been using drones, also known as Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for a variety of applications, such as surveillance and reconnaissance, in unknown or hostile territories, to track enemy movements, for border patrols, search and rescue missions, and emergency services. Armed versions of drones have been used to protect the forces as well as to target and kill enemy forces including terrorists.
Image Courtesy: Botlink
Drones have penetrated the commercial sphere in a big way, with businesses deploying drones in increasingly diverse roles. These drones are being used for developmental purposes, including aerial mapping, and for monitoring critical infrastructures such as ports and power plants. The geospatial market using drones for surveying, mining, construction, to name a few, could see a phenomenal increase in the coming decades. A recent report from Goldman Sachs put the global spending on drones over the next five years at approximately US$100 billion; a significant share in the commercial/civil sector is set to be focused on the construction industry.
Given the potentially large-scale use of drones in the civilian and security domains, there appears to be a growing global drone industry as well. According to a US study, the global drone market was worth US$5.93 billion in 2015 and is estimated to grow to US$22.15 billion by 2022, representing a growth rate of 20 per cent.
As the global market for drones has grown, so too have the debates on the legal and regulatory issues around their use. So far, there are no clear global mechanisms to regulate activities utilising drones. There are also issues of accidents, air collisions, safety and security in the use of drones. Each of these issues require a comprehensive framework for effective regulation in the civilian airspace for domestic security, privacy and legal concerns to be addressed effectively.
Rogue Drones Menace
India has witnessed several instances of unidentified drone activity in recent years. In December 2017, there were four incidents of unidentified flying objects disrupting operations at the Delhi airport. There was a similar scare on 25 July 2018 and again on August 9.
The military was called in at London’s Gatwick airport between 19 and 21 December 2018 after it was targeted by drones that forced the closure of the hub and threw the Christmas travel plans of more than 100,000 people into disarray costing tens of million pounds. The threat isn’t limited to aviation.
The chilling incident of a mystery drone attack against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on 4 August 2018 last year is the world’s first known attempt to kill a Head of State with a retail drone, purchased online and armed locally with military-grade explosives. One unarmed drone landed harmlessly at the feet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an event in 2013; and one, carrying a small amount of radioactive sand, landed on the roof of the Japanese Prime Minister’s office in 2015.
Drones have been used in attacks on or surveillance of US troops and their allies in Iraq and Syria by ISIS. A drone was flown into a stadium to harass soccer players in Serbia in October 2014. Small drones have been used in all these incidents which are easily available in the market without any regulatory mechanism in place.
The incidents are the by-product of the latest consumer craze: cheap, easy-to-fly, remotely piloted aircraft. Even basic models can soar thousands of feet high and come equipped with powerful video cameras – capabilities that would have been hard to foresee just a few years ago. Most new drone models are aimed at novice fliers who are often blissfully unaware of aviation safety practices. Although the vast majority of drone enthusiasts fly solely for recreation, police authorities worry about the potential for a new airborne menace.
Anti-Drone System
The drones that people worry about in this context are not the ones developed by the military for surveillance and airstrikes. They are smaller, cheaper, commercially available gadgets like quadcopters that can have much recreational or business uses, from getting cool aerial footage to delivering emergency supplies to monitoring crops or even traffic violations.
As the risk of accident or mischief has grown manifold, so has the industry responded to countering rogue drones. “It’s almost the Wild West of counter-drone development out there right now,” said an industry insider. Various companies offer different kinds of monitoring systems: net guns that can be used to capture drones and bring them down, vehicles like Airspace’s that can tow a potentially dangerous flying object away from a crowd and to safety, and even geo-fencing software that physically repels a drone from flying into certain airspace.
So far, however, none of these systems has been deployed in any comprehensive way around the world. Instead, a patchwork of systems is being used in a handful of sensitive areas, such as airports and public places.
Indian scenario
Manufacturing of drones in India has led to chaos, said Sanjay Jaju, Joint Secretary, Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence said recently at a FICCI event on “Countering Rogue Drones”. All kinds of the drone were being imported and it was reckless, he added. Drone sightings, said Jaju, were akin to kite flying. It was difficult to determine whether a drone would be used for civil or military purposes, which made it difficult to formulate regulations.
Sanjay Jaju, Joint Secretary, Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India. Photo/FICCI
According to the drone industry around a half million (5 lakh) drones were illegally imported in India between 2014 and 2018 due to softer regulations. India’s geographical vastness limits the ability of the government to monitor flights of these rogue drones that aren’t registered with the authorities.
The senior bureaucrat did acknowledge the need to build capabilities for domestic manufacturing of drones, which have found use in sectors as versatile as farming and food delivery. He informed that the drone technology has immense potential and, as per NITI Aayog, the sector is likely to reach $50 billion in the next 15 years. The emphasis would be on liberalising manufacturing while maintaining control over the operation of drones, he said.
There was a need to bring in technology to counter rogue drones, the Director General of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security Rakesh Asthaana said at the FICCI event “We have no answer as to how to distinguish the good drones from the rogue ones,” he said. A committee was working on measures to counter rogue drone attacks and was expected to submit its report to the Civil Aviation Ministry soon, Asthaana disclosed.
Mr Rakesh Asthaana, Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Govt. of India. Photo/FICCI
The first official notice to ban the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was issued back in 2014 by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). But, despite the notice, it was difficult to enforce the ban. Four years after it imposed a blanket ban on drones, India came out with a regulatory policy on December 1, 2018. Barring Nano drones, which weigh less than 250 grams, the rest have to be registered and issued a unique identification number. The owner is also required to obtain a permit to fly these unmanned aerial vehicles. Even though these drones were flying around, almost none of them meet the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) and aren’t compliant with the no-permission no-take off (NPNT) mandate. So there’s no way to stop them even if they’re spotted flying against the law.
And, that’s where counter unmanned aerial system (cuas) technology comes in. Traditional methods like anti-aircraft radars don’t generally pick up on drones because they have been designed to detect a large metallic object that moves fast. Drones, on the other hand, move slower and fly lower.
Co-Chair, FICCI Committee on Drones and Co-founder and CEO, Idea Forge Ankit Mehta, said, “Some thought also has TO be given to counter-drone systems that not just target the drones but target or find ways and means of locating the person who is operating them.”
Photo/FICCI
Calling for indigenisation of drone manufacturing and counter drone solutions, Sanjay Jaju observed that local manufacturing should be done not only to derive economic potential but also to check the internal and external threats faced by the country.
“If we can manufacture world-class drones within the country, we can obviously manufacture world-class counter drone measures. Otherwise what will happen is dependence on the global market will continue for the anti-drone measures as it is for drones currently,” he said.
“If we can manufacture world-class drones within the country, we can obviously manufacture world-class counter drone measures. Otherwise what will happen is dependence on the global market will continue for the anti-drone measures as it is for drones currently,” he said.
The Ministry is expected to release drone regulations 2.0 later in 2019. It has roped in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, National Security Guard, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Airport Authorities of India, Central Industrial Security Force and others to come up with measures to counter rogue drones.
Lamentably, regulators and potential operators have been reluctant to seek advice from the armed forces for the operation, maintenance and regulation of drones. The armed forces have been successfully operating drones for some years now and have gained considerable experience and expertise in not only flying these vehicles but also dealing with emergencies and contingencies. They have also instituted robust procedures to ensure the safe operation of drones even in harsh conditions and have accumulated knowledge in this regard. It seems wasteful that civilian authorities are not engaging the armed forces on tapping their vast experience to develop better-informed policies on drones.
The drone landscape is changing much faster than the governments’ ability to keep up with the changes. The net result is a policy void. But the drone issue is extremely important an issue as it is an emerging safety concern which India is not focused on. To have a robust mechanism we must have better legislation, military-grade technology, and closer cooperation on the issue between authorities and operators.
By Ravi Shankar
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BharatShakti.in)
