Alarmed by the security threat posed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), the Indian Air Force (IAF) has sought a ban on them in the proximity of defence installations in Jammu and Kashmir (J &K) and Punjab.
This, even as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in consultation with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), para military forces, the Navy and the Army, has been working on a countrywide policy for regulating the use of UAVs and UASs.
IAF sources said a letter was shot to J&K and Punjab governments on June 2, underlining threats of terrorist attacks through the use of sub-conventional methods to target installations belonging to IAF, defence, para military forces and police.
Such sub-conventional methods could be misuse of adventure sports facilities like para gliding, parasailing and air balloons.
The IAF has also sought the civil administration’s help in respective areas to identify the private agencies that are involved in these adventure sports and declaration of the equipments they own.
IAF chief Arup Raha in October publicly showed concern about the possibility of UAVs becoming tools at the hands of terrorists while speaking to reporters. Other security agencies too, have been seeking a high-priority focus on regulating their use.
Since these devices fly at low levels, detecting them by radars become difficult.
In January this year, IAF had to press its frontline fighter jet Sukhoi-30 to shoot down an “unidentified” balloon over Barmer in Rajasthan, close to the international border with Pakistan. It later turned out to be a helium filled and harmless balloon but sources in security establishment didn’t deny that such instances could be to test IAF’s response time on breaching of the Indian air space.
In May last year, security agencies went into a tizzy after five remote controlled parachutes were spotted in the Mumbai airport airspace. Though they were later identified to have been mistakenly entered the area and ‘harmless’, it led to Mumbai police banning the use of drones and paragliders in the city.
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