Webpage open for registration

The Indian Armed Forces will assess the existing Drone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technologies of global companies at the Aero India 2019 to be held in February 2019 in Bengaluru.

The assessment is to be carried out through a competition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)/Drones, the role of which is ever-increasing in the defence sector.

“Role of UAVs in defence sector is ever-increasing on account of new additionalities being added to them making them fit for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and strike missions,” said the Defence Ministry in a press release on 28 Dec 2018.

It will also encourage UAV manufacturing in India, it added.

“The UAV market is one of the fastest growing fields in the world,” said the release.

Underlining the importance of Drones and UAV, the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has launched a newly designed web page for ‘Drone Olympics’ for the Aero India 2019 competition.

The ‘Drone Olympics’ is open to both Indian and international players.

Three categories of the event, planned during the competition, are:

Surveillance Challenge with four sub-categories which will determine the surveillance capability of the UAVs;

Supply Drop Challenge to assess weight dropping capability and Formation Flying Challenge demonstrating different shapes with group of UAVs.

The webpage, (https://aeroindia.gov.in/Drone), is open for registration of UAV players interested in taking part in the maiden event of the Aero India.

Last date of registration to participate in event is 26 January 2019. fiinews.com