In September 2021, Indian Army signed a Rs. 100 crore worth contract with the Joint Venture between India’s Alpha Design & Israel’s Elbit Security Systems, for the procurement of over 100 – ‘SkyStrikers’ under its emergency procurement powers. All the ‘SkyStriker’ type drones will be manufactured in the Bangalore manufacturing unit of Alpha Design.
What are SkyStrikers?
SkyStriker can carry a warhead of up to 10 kg within its fuselage; It has a Range of 100 km; It can reach a distance of 20 kms within 10 minutes.
i.SkyStrikers are cost-effective, long-range drones that are capable of performing surveillance activities and known for their precision of attacking targets.
ii.They are also known as “Suicide Drones”, because of its autonomous system that is designed to directly crash over the target with its pre-loded 5 kgs of Warhead.
iii.SkyStrikers are low altitude drones that use GPS to track the target location.
Note – In August 2021, The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) notified the Drone Rules, 2021 making various changes to the usage of drones in India.
Contracts between IAF & Alpha Design:
Previously in August 2021, Alpha Design signed 2 defence procurement contracts with the Indian Air Force (IAF).
- Manufacture 6 Very High Frequency (VHF) radars at the cost of over Rs 200 crores, to replace the aging P18 radars.
- A Rs 80 crore contract to manufacture 60 Identification of Friend-or-Foe or IFF systems that was Developed by the Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) under Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO).
Recent Related News:
‘CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) app’, an AI-based grievance management app developed by IIT Kanpur was launched by the Defence Ministry in July 2021.
About Alpha Design:
Established – 2003
Headquarters – Bangalore, Karnataka
About Indian Army:
Established – 1st April, 1895
Chief of the Army Staff – Manoj Mukund Naravane
