Four UAVs crash within two years of induction

NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Agencies): Within two years of its induction to boost border surveillance, Armed Forces have lost four Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV) with Indian officials taking up the matter with Israeli manufacturers.

The Defence Ministry took up the matter with the Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) after inhouse probes into the crashes attributed them to system failure, the Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Rajya Sabha.

Mukherjee told the house in a written reply that the Original Manufacturers had agreed to repair the Unmanned Aerial Vehilces free of cost.

While, two of the UAV's which have crashed were of the Indian Air Force, the other two belonged to the Army and in one of the accidents an IAF handler was also killed, according to officials here.

The Armed Forces top brass have expressed concern over the crashes rate which experts feel are unusually high with the number of UAV's inducted so far being only around 50.

The first crash of the UAV happened soon after induction in 2003 on a forward airbase in Rajasthan and the court of inquiry held human error as cause for the crash.

"A continous and multi-faceted effort is underway in the Defence forces to enhance and upgrade safety of the UAV's" Mukherjee said adding that measures to enhance the quality of training were also being pursued.

The Minister also said that maintenance issues related to the UAV's had also been taken up with the Israeli manufacturers.

He said tactics had been formulated to avert aerial threat to UAV's from enemy aircraft during operational missions.

India entered into a major agreement with Israel for supply of High altitude Searcher and medium altitude Heron UAV's in 2002, while DRDO is also cocnducted final trials of the country's indigenous Nishant UAV.

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