How India’s UAV Programme is lacking behind against China’s close to deploying Supersonic Spy Drones

Siddhant Sandhu
April 21, 2023
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According to a secret US military assessment, the Chinese military may soon deploy a high-altitude espionage drone that travels at least three times the speed of sound, according to the Washington Post late Tuesday. The newspaper referenced a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency confidential document.

How Indias UAV Programme is lacking behind against Chinas close to deploying Supersonic Spy Drones

What did the Document say?

According to the publication, the document, which Reuters could not independently authenticate or verify, includes satellite images dated August 9 that show two WZ-8 rocket-propelled reconnaissance drones at an air base in eastern China, approximately 350 miles (560 km) inland from Shanghai.

According to the US assessment, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had “almost certainly” established its first unmanned aerial vehicle unit at the base, which is under the control of the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, which is in charge of enforcing Chinese sovereignty claims over Taiwan, according to the newspaper. The US Defence Department did not reply quickly to a request for comment. The Chinese authorities could not be reached for comment right away.

According to the Washington Post, the assessment of the program was gained from a cache of photos of sensitive data released on the Discord messaging app, purportedly by a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who was arrested last week. The FBI detained Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the United States Air National Guard, on Thursday in connection with sensitive document leaks that embarrassed Washington and its allies across the world.

The disclosures were publicly known earlier this month, raising concerns in Washington about the potential damage they could inflict. The incident embarrassed the United States by exposing its espionage on allies and alleged Ukrainian military vulnerabilities. India, on the other hand, began its long-endurance UAV research program in the early 2000s with the goal of introducing it in 2016. However, the program had considerable delays, with the first flight of the Tapas UAV taking place only in 2016.

It took another five years (until 2021) for the Tapas UAV to reach 28,000 feet. The government asked HAL to build six Tapas UAVs for evaluation trials in July 2022. The assessment of the Chinese WZ-8 drone originated from a collection of sensitive data that were purportedly released on the Discord app by a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who was recently jailed.

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