In the era prior to the explosion of commercial drone proliferation, drones were mainly leveraged by military and defense personnel. Drones have proven to be a revelation within the domain of warfare, and have been a gamechanger in the arena over the course of the past two decades. Drones are unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that can execute anything from carry out targeted airstrikes to deactivate bombs. As drones increase in popularity and prevalence across the board in various other industries, unmanned systems are having a considerable impact on army deployments on an ongoing basis. The advantages are of broad scope, which includes the drones themselves and tech facilitating information integration for operators. 

Drone tech is poised to create a revolution in army and defense operations 

Starting with Israel’s exploration surrounding unmanned intelligence surveillance and recon (ISR) missions, the domain has experienced evolution into UAS that can traverse further and longer with the added benefit of enhanced communications. These technological advancements have widened UAS’s usefulness in army applications. 

The advantages conferred by UAS technology consist of the following: 

• Surveillance of long-range missile threats – There is currently a lot of discourse with regards to the North Korean and American missile defenses. North Korea has gained the unfailing attention of the international populace, for all the wrong reasons – with Kim’s despotic regime redefining the word ‘autocratic’. Kim’s regime is blasting missiles out to sea on an ongoing basis. Presently, on the Korean landmass, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is working to handle situational awareness while surveying threats from North Korea. 

Specifically, at the USA’s 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade HQ located in South Korea, North Korea’s more democratic and progressive neighbor, units of infantry work around the clock to furnish real-time monitoring of the ballistic missile threat. These troops play a critical part in surveillance and obtaining data to make sure USA’s missile defense is ready for any potential scenario, including all-out war. 

Leveraging an operational intelligence platform fill the gap in information flow to facilitate military and DoD UAS users to more swiftly gain easier access to information in order to furnish a Common Operating Picture (COP). Users can better accomplish preventative, predictive, and reactive analytics on the basis of advanced algorithms for comprehensive operational and situational knowledge during mission critical scenarios. 

• Safeguarding troops in combat prone zones – In present military zones, maintaining personnel safety in the course of complicated missions is a leading consideration. Leveraging UAS technologies can eradicate the necessity to put them directly in conflict-laden scenarios by hovering over areas and regions of interest, obtaining critical surveillance data and communicating the data back to the military command center. 

Via programs that run on OI tech, command forces can obtain situational awareness and knowledge through a COP that displays information regarding the region by obtaining and integrating several information sources. Using this data, army units can develop a plan of action to detect targets, safeguard infrastructure, enhance safety and even document the mission for training upon operation conclusion, all in a better and more efficient fashion. 

• Assisting communications in reduced-bandwidth areas – Army drone operations typically occur in remote settings with weak communication infrastructure, rendering efficient communications amongst the command center and the personnel on the field a challenge – if not completely impossible. Leveraging an OI platform, UAS technologies can enable communication in these reduced bandwidth scenarios through integration and analysis of increasingly disparate information sources in real time. 

A strong UAS framework can assign priority to information such as live GPS coordinates, mission information, environmental conditions, video, and other sources to enable communications to be delivered to remote areas. These sophisticated processing techniques give both personnel on the field and the command center with critical data required to facilitate real-time sensitive decision making. The USA’s army is even looking into autonomous UAS technologies that can be operational without the requirement of any kind of GPS information. 

Although its still in the preliminary phases of development, missions that are classified as too hazardous or complicated for humans may soon be outsourced to militarized autonomous drones, which can go into the heat of the battlefield without any negative consequences to human personnel and make smart decisions considerably quicker. 

• Operational Intelligence (OI) imparts situational awareness – Simulyze’s OI system enables UAS operators to function safely and effectively with real-time data understanding and situational awareness that facilitates data-driven decisions. Its information gathering, visual capture, and information analysis functionalities are poised to revolutionize the way in which the army works with unfathomable visibility into intelligence related data. 

Counterintelligence 101 

What is counterintelligence? It’s the assortment of processes and protocol executed to protect a nation-state’s interests by countering exterior insurgency or acts of intrusion. Miniscule micro drones, for these applications, impart an undebatable and significant edge on the field.  

Let’s delve a bit deeper and go into the five leading reasons for leveraging drones in counterintelligence. 

• Indigenous small/micro drone technologies 

Tech is undergoing constant evolution. This is the hallmark of any good technology, it changes as the needs change, as the external situation changes. It a big advantage for a nation-state to have accesses to leading edge and globally sought-after indigenous tech, particularly within the domains of defense and security. Several organizations have become international industry leaders in thought leadership and technology with regards to establishing stringent drone benchmarks. These drones provide that additional ‘unsurmountable’ capacity to counterintelligence. 

India is taking up tech-interventions to make its defense and homeland security more modern and progressive. With one focused on the future and other on protecting its citizenry, India has made massive investments in excess of $130 billion (over the next half-a-decade) for the modernizing of it’s army forces and infrastructure. 

Immediate on-field knowledge with drones imparts agility and versatility of strategic decisions. Drone technology has consistently concentrated on providing such benefits on the field. These drones assist in taking the right calls at the appropriate time with a firm upper-hand of secure intelligence and recon. 

• Ongoing drone monitoring and counter-insurgency 

Army personnel used to scout, leveraging manual thermal scanning cameras, even in tumultuous environmental conditions and settings. This has caused various compromises to the health and the scouting range of personnel. Drones establish the preliminary step of ongoing and timely territorial monitoring for detecting movement or anomalies. 

Moving beyond fixed cameras, (visual and thermal), drones provide flight to the visual field of the battalion or unit. These miniscule drones assist in setting-up ongoing scouting or monitoring drills to continuously keep records of an any and all activities in the allocated territory. However, not all enemy detection or engagement occurs along the line of control. Insurgents identify ways to execute infiltration through even densely forested areas or belowground tunnels. 

Drones have been able to identify these subtleties in anomalies through consistent surveillance and fine change identification. High res IR – thermal scans were able to detect the miniscule vegetation and landscape changes and identify insurgency and material movements. This has been instrumental in disassembling several insurgent strongholds, weeding them out at the source, saving many lives in the process. 

• Live operational recon with drones 

Counterintelligence is not just preempting strikes and deterrence. Live operations and campaigns need immediate recon for initiating attacks or for readying robust defenses. This is more vital when surgical accuracy and stealth are being prioritized, which can be to reduce collateral impact. 

Micro drones are the ideal stealth and intelligence supplement. Scouts can initiate a miniscule drone to obtain a first-hand eagle-eye perspective of the total layout and the enemy factions who are involved. The drones make little to no noise, and are not detectable as they hover and maneuver at a convenient altitude. Drones are also presently being outfitted with dual payload capacities. 

This implies that infantry can evaluate target locations, with ease and thorough precision, around the clock, with high-definition visuals or IR thermal imagery. The drones can also virtually tag a non-stationary target to for efficient tracking. 

• Rogue drone identification and management 

The technologies deployed in defense settings should feature adequate security and have no compromises. Drone tech has the advantage for instant spotting of rogue drones, anyplace, anytime. Regular drones that monitor can identify and tag illicit drone usage in critical or no-fly regions and execute instant decisive action. 

These indigenous drones are developed with high levels of encryption for completely secure communications amongst internal frameworks. There’s no probability for any wrongly directed or unauthenticated access to any intelligence that has been obtained. Furthermore, the drones feature stringent fail-safe protocols. In any scenario with apparent battery, structural or flight-path compromises, the drones would instantly hover directly to home-base without exception. 

• Increased endurance and longer-range drones 

Drones are developed to stringent army design ideologies to survive difficult environmental conditions while providing the best results. These drones feature increased endurance and range, and have the capability of protracted, improved, and more stable flights than other technologies built for such applications. 

This implies that drone technology can handle universally all scenarios created by various terrains or situations. From increased altitudes to arid sea levels, the drone would demonstrate performance with the same accuracy and flight input, every time. 

The drones are very portable. They can be hauled from one location to another in a mere bag taken by one person. The entire Ground Control Station (GCS), which includes the drone, can complete assemblage and be deployed by the operator in a matter of minutes. 

The drones feature vertical take-offs and Landings (VTOL). This implies that the agent can establish and initiate the drone from even the most remote of localities, at times by the side of roadways in a military caravan, to scout paths ahead for security. 

There exist a lot more in the way of rationale to invest in the drone technologies to maintain counterintelligence. However, there is a singular reason which is more important than the others. Intelligence collected on time through drone technologies or via other deployments, can not just save lives but also upkeep peace in war-torn locations. Correct counterintelligence functions to corner the unlawful an insurgent agent from doing any tangible damages, taking away their power in the process. 

It’s the gamechanger to end all other gamechangers.