Indian Army buys more locally developed UAVs to meet expanding ISR demands

Indian company ideaForge, a developer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), has secured a USD20 million contract from the Indian Army (IA) to deliver an unspecified number of its vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAVs called Switch.

A spokesperson for the company, which is based in Maharashtra, told Janes that the order follows an earlier contract to deliver Switch UAVs to the IA for the same value. The spokesperson said that the company expects to complete the deliveries by the latter half of 2022.

According to ideaForge, the Switch UAV weighs less than seven kg, has a line-of-sight (LoS) range of 15 km, and an endurance of about two hours. It has a maximum launch altitude of 4,000 m above mean sea level (AMSL), a maximum operating altitude of 1,000 m above ground level (AGL), and a wind resistance of up to 20 km/h.

The spokesperson also said that the Switch UAV is in demand in multiple defence organisations in India as well as India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for security and surveillance purposes.

The spokesperson added that ideaForge's Netra V4 UAV, officially launched at Aero India 2021, is also in demand across Indian security agencies and is being operated by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and the Punjab Police, among others.

Netra V4 is a quadcopter, also suited for use in high-altitude regions. It weighs less than 6 kg, and according to Janes All the World's Aircraft: Unmanned , it can be equipped with swappable mission payloads, including daylight HD video payload (1,280×720 pixels with 10× optical zoom), or a night-imaging video payload (640×480 pixels).