Army in talks to buy UAVs from Cyient for intelligence

Indian Army has initiated talks to buy around 200 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Cyient Solutions for the purpose of gathering intelligence inputs.

“I can disclose is there is an ongoing discussion right now if they (Indian Army) need 200 systems. These systems will not be at one place and will be split all over the country and all the information gets pooled,” Sanjay Sharma, Vice President and Business Head for Cyient Solutions and Services told DH.

The army is the process to buy SpyLite Mini UAV from the company. The drone, used for the intelligence gathering, has a take-off weight of 9.5 kilograms, with four hours of endurance and 80 kilometres of extended control range. It is a fully autonomous drone – from launch to the parachute recovery.

Though Sharma didn’t disclose the size of the contract in the value term, he said that the company has filed a Request For Proposal (RFP).

Cyient Solutions and Systems (CSS) is a joint venture between Cyient Limited and BlueBird Aero Systems, Israel.

The company also launched its latest offering, the WanderB Vertical Take-Off & Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial System at the Aeroshow 2019. The WanderB VTOL is a technologically advanced solution for military, peacekeeping, low-intensity conflict resolution, law enforcement, disaster management, and commercial applications. The system is being showcased at Cyient’s booth at Aero India 2019 from February 20–24.