Antony wants Army to use UAVs on China border

Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday asked Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh to augment India’s surveillance and intelligence gathering close to Sino-Indian border in the North East and Ladakh, for which the Army has been instructed to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) more frequently.

During a 90-minute meeting with Gen Singh to discuss security threats emanating from China, Antony stressed on having more UAVs in these areas and increase intelligence gathering and surveillance capabilities, official sources said.

Gen Singh, on his part, flagged Army’s concerns on threats from China and appealed to the minister to speed up the modernisation process, which includes allowing the Army to set up its own aviation wing for bolstering air support to border operations.

The new Army Chief, who commanded the Eastern Army Command in Kolkata, impressed upon the minister on Army’s need to expand its air operations particularly in the north east even though the Indian Air Force is opposed to the idea of Army having an expanded aviation wing. At the moment, the Army depends on the IAF to a large extent for air support.

Expansion of the Army Aviation Wing remains a bone of contention between the two services. Antony told Singh to enhance airlift capacities in the eastern region and keep medium-lift and attack choppers in ready for action. However, no decision has been taken on the expansion of the Army aviation wing. The Army has also been asked to increase its force deployment close to the border and improve border infrastructure.
The bureaucratic and technical bottlenecks in raising a new mountain division were also discussed during the meeting.