New Delhi: India is scouting for Micro Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (Micro RPAS) for its army’s infantry and plans to buy 150 of them through a tender that will be out by May 2021.

The Micro RPAS (Type B) will be used by the Indian Army‘s infantry men for situational awareness of their operational area and by Special Forces commandos during their operations such as the surgical strikes carried out in Sept. 2016 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Indian Army seeks Micro RPAS “to have a light weight aerial surveillance platform with day and night sensors to enhance the situational awareness of the squad and troop involved in various special operations tasks,” the Request for Information (RFI) document issued by the army said.

The army has stipulated that the Micro RPAS should be man portable, easy for a soldier to carry and operate. The system should have an operational range of up to five kilometres, weighing not more than six kilograms (All Up Weight) and endurance of not less than 60 minutes.

The system should be foldable and suitable to be carried on man pack basis. The Micro RPAS should be controlled by a ground controller with a data link established with Micro RPAS.

The Micro RPAS should be able to detect targets by day and night. The system should have a day camera and a night camera. The system should be launched in a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) mode.

The system should have a low noise signature to avoid detection. The Micro RPAS should have the ability to transmit live video feed from Ground Control System (GCS) to remote location on user provided IP network with adequate bandwidth to support data transmission.

Owing to the prevalent situation because of COVID-19 pandemic, the responses to the RFI should be submitted by June 26.

Agencies