|  Despite
the extensive use of UAVs by the Indian armed forces, at Bangalore,
unmanned aircraft were shadowed by the MRCA fighter program.
Only two systems were displayed in the static park - the Indian
Nishant and British Herti with few more were displayed inside
the exhibition halls, particularly at the Israeli pavilion.
The DRDO displayed the Nishant with its new Advanced Ground
Control System (AGCS), configured to meet current and future
UAV programs. The system uses four ergonomically designed consoles
for the piot, mission commander, payload operator and image
exploitation functions. Each console comprises a 21.3"
high resolution TFT display supporting picture-in-picture capability,
supporting the presentation of payload imagery, electronic maps
(in raster and vector modes).
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BAE Systems' HERTI fully
autonomous unmanned air vehicle (UAV) was making its international
public debut at the exhibition. HERTI, is one of a new generation
of UAVs suitable for both military and civil operations. It
has been designed to perform to perform maritime, coastline
and border surveillance through Medium Altitude Long Endurance
(MALE) missions, equipped with the Imagery Collection &
Exploitation (ICE) system also developed by BAE Systems. The
company demonstrated the production configuration vehicle with
operational ground station providing replays of missions carried
out during HERTI’s recently completed flight test program
which took place at the Woomera range in southern Australia.
Another UAV, the Sperwer, was displayed in model form by the
French company Sagem.
Three Israeli companies displayed UAVs in anticipation for
a Small UAV program, expected to be launched by the Indian Army.
At Aero-India 2007, Elbit Systems displayed its Skylark II while
IAI brought two versions of the I-View, the lightweight I-View
50 and heavier I-View 250, recently selected by the Australian
Army. The RAFAEL's Skylite B mini-UAV was also present. Among
the mini-UAVs, EADS displayed the Tracker, developed under a
French Army contract. Aero-India 07 provided the debut for a
new UAV specialist, the Indian company Speck, which introduced
an impressive capability for designing and operating unmanned
systems, as well as providing image collection, interpretation
and mapping services. The company displayed models of several
mini UAVs, including the small Baaz, which is slated to undergo
Indian Army trials.
Our report will cover the following topics:
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