Here is what one can infer about the drone-strike conducted in the early pre-dawn hours of June 27, 2021 against the Indian Air Force’s Jammu AFS:
1) The drones used were in all likelihood China-made DJI Matrice 600 Pro Hexacopters that can be remote-controlled out till a maximum distance of 5km (Specifications: https://www.dji.com/matrice600-pro/info).
2) All previous instances of the usage of such HexaCopters for ferrying in weapons across the Working Boundary (WB) had made use of the DJI Matrice 600 Pro. Those that were recovered up to 12km inside India in all probability suffered from loss of remote-control data-linking and consequently drifted further inland.
3) Since the two DJI Matrice 600 Pro drones were not shot down on June 27, it can only mean that they were safely recovered by their controllers.
4) Consequently, we can thus infer that these two HexaCopters were launched within a distance of 5km from Jammu AFS and from an easterly direction that afforded the controllers an unrestricted view of the targetted area.
5) This in turn leads us to the terraces of those buildings that were sufficiently tall to offer such a view, since the areas to the west of the airport/air base is flat agrarian terrain.
6) The attack thus came from an easterly direction and not from across the WB, i.e. Pakistan-controlled territory cannot be the launch-pad for the two HexaCopters.
7) However, it is highly likely that the drone-attacks were staged by cadres of the PoK-based and Pakistan-funded Resistance Front (successor of the United Jihad Council), since Pakistan wants to give the impression that the unrests inside J & K UT are a totally indigenous affair. 8) If that is the case, then that leaves us with only three possibilities regarding the source of the HexaCopters:
A) either they were smuggled overland into Jammu from across the riverine terrain prevailing along the WB.
B) They were smuggled by an infiltration team that sneaked into Jammu via underground tunnels dug beneath the fenced-up WB.
C) The HexaCopters were ordered from and received in India under the guise of ‘agricultural spray drones’.
The riddle will be resolved only if the two HexaCopters are either recovered intact or are shot down in future during another round of attacks. For only these will reveal the identity of their operators and their financial sponsors. As for the shaped-charge IEDs used, only a well-trained person can fabricate them and this then rules out the involvement of any J & K-based operative. Instead, the IED-maker is most probably from Pakistan who has infiltrated into Jammu.
If it is true that in addition to the two back-to-back
explosions, which occurred at 1.37am and 1.42am, there were two additional drones—one
launched from Ratnuchak (north of Jammu AFS) and another from Kaluchak (to the
southeast)—that were shot at from the ground and therefore they had to withdraw
without dropping their IEDs, then this could only mean that the controllers of
those drones could hear the sounds of groundfire (not possible if the
controllers were Pakistan-based) and consequently the controllers were within
the urban areas of Jammu and they wanted to prevent any physical damage to the
drones, probably for the sake of using them again in future.
Which then brings us to the future targets, i.e.
where will the next air-strike probably take place. Targets like the IAF’s air
bases in Pathankot, Udhampur and Avantipora can easily be ruled out since there
are no high-rise structures around such air bases and hence the controllers will
not be able to visually acquire their targets at nighttime when operating from atop such structures. That leaves us with
only one mouth-watering target: the heliport at Nagrota, which can be attacked
in the same manner as that conducted against Jammu AFS.
So what are the soft-kill and hard-kill options
available for defending such vulnerable air bases and heliports? China, for
instance, has developed a truck-mounted ESM sensor that in essence uses radar
warning receivers (RWR) originally developed for application on-board combat
aircraft.
India can come up with a similar solution by making
use of the DARE-developed Dhruti R-118 RWRs.
There are also indigenously-developed counter-drone systems, like Tonbo Imaging's VAULT C-UAS. If imported solutions are sought, then the Drone-Dome from RAFAEL of Israel is available. According to RAFAEL’s specifications, the Drone-Dome can detect micro-drones as small as 0.002 m² (3.1 square inches) at a distance of 3.5km and can sense and then jam signals between the drone and its remote control station.
https://www.rafael.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Drone-Dome.pdf
Backgrounder: Infiltrations By HexaCopters
The usage of HexaCopters began in 2019 following the Khalistan Zindabad Force’s (KZF) Pakistan-based chief Ranjeet Singh alias Neeta and his Germany-based associate Gurmeet Singh alias Bagga conducting nearly a dozen supply sorties. On March 11, 2019 the BSF shot down a HexaCopter in the Fazilka sector. Similarly, on September 19, two AK-47 SLRs, two pistols and four grenades were recovered from three arrested militants in J & K UT who claimed that arms and ammunition were received via drones. One drone was recovered on August 13, 2019 and it was a crashed HexaCopter carrying 21kg payload in Mohawa village of Amritsar district—a mere 1.5km from the IB. The drone model U10 KV100-U, and it had been designed and manufactured by China-based T Motors. The airframe of the drone was called TAROT 680 PRO. Four brick-sized batteries (model Tattu-Made in China) were also found installed in the Hexacopter. Another HexaCopter (out of three) was seized in the burnt condition in September from Jhabal town in Tarn Taran. They were used for ferrying in five AK-47s (along with 16 magazines and 472 rounds of ammunition), four China-made .30 bore ‘Star’ Pistols (along with eight magazines and 72 rounds of ammunition), nine hand-grenades, five Thuraya satellite phones along with their ancillary equipment, two cellphones, two wireless sets and FICN with face-value of Rs.10 lakh—all of which were air-dropped in Rajoke. Between September 9 and 16, 2019 HexaCopters were used for ferrying almost 100kg of arms and ammunition into Punjab. The foreign handlers, Gurmeet Bagga of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), and his terrorist associates based in Pakistan, including KZF chief Ranjeet Singh Neeta, who were handling the Indian Punjab-based Akashdeep terror module, had informed Akashdeep and his associates about the crashing of this drone inside Indian territory. They had also shared the coordinates of the crash landing site and further directed Akashdeep to go to the crash site and destroy the drone by burning lest the Punjab Police came to know about it.
On September 22, 2019, the Punjab State Police successfully
wound-up the India-based module of this operation, which was active in the
Husseiniwallah, Tarn Taran, Ajnala, Fazilka and Khem Karan areas of Punjab. The
HexaCopters with 10kg payloads had been flown for almost 7km from their
launch-pads at a height of 2,000 feet to deliver their payloads. On both October
7 and 8, 2019 a HexaCopter originating from Pakistan was detected
flying over two villages in the Hussainiwala area of Punjab. On October
10, 2019, HexaCopters were cited in two locations in Punjab. The first
sighting was reported in Hazarasingh Wala village at 7:20am and later in
Tendiwala village at 10:10pm. On January 27, 2020, a
HexaCopter flown from Pakistan was shot down by the BSF in Arnia sector, while
on June 20, 2020, BSF troops shot down a HexaCopter carrying one
M-4 carbine, two loaded magazines (60 rounds), and seven China-irigin
hand-grenades near the WB in Jammu’s Kathua district. The HexaCopter was
spotted hovering in the vicinity of BoP Pansar around 5.10am by a BSF patrol
party, which then shot it down 250 metres inside Indian territory.
One of the major India-based narco-terrorism modules, headed by former
IA Naik Rahul Chauhan, was involved in carting 75kg of pure heroin and at least
seven pistols between November and December 2019. The
module, operating from the Jat Regiment Centre in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, was
busted on January 9, 2020. According to Chauhan’s interrogation
report, a Pakistani national named Waqar got in touch with him when he was
running surveillance drones for the IA in the Naushera sector in July-August
2019. Chauhan was later contacted by another source, identified as Choudhary,
over a WhatsApp call from a Germany-based number, and a meeting was set up with
Choudhary’s associate in Ambala. During interrogation, Chauhan admitted to
operating drones from the border villages of Dhanoa Khurd and Mulaekot to pick
up heroin and pistols from Pakistan. He used three drones purchased from
Chandini Chowk (Delhi), Ghaziabad and Pune, and made cross-border sorties at
the height of 1,200 feet on November 27 and 30, and then on December 8, 9 and 17, 2019. These sorties were made from border villages between 3am and 4am to
avoid detection, and the distance covered from the launch area to the pick-up
point in Pakistan was between 2.2km and 2.8km, with flying times generally
between 14 and 18 minutes. Data gathered from the captured drones showed that
the last flight on December 19 was 26 minutes, 54 seconds long. Further
investigation revealed that the money used to buy the drones was provided by
convicted drug smuggler Lakhwinder Singh (in Amristar Jail since September
2019), and his associates Ajaypal and Dharminder.
On May 14, 2021 the BSF had detected weapons dropped by a suspected Pakistan drone at Samba in Jammu. On specific information regarding dropping of arms and ammunition, BSF troops carried out a search operation in Samba sector and recovered an item wrapped in yellow polythene from a field. One AK-47 assault rifle, one pistol, one magazine, 15 rounds for a 9mm weapon, one wooden frame (used to attach the payload to the drone) and wrapping material were recovered approximately 250 metres inside Indian territory. On June 20, 2020 the BSF even shot down one such HexaCopter that was carrying arms and ammunition at Rathua village in Kathua district’s Hiranagar sector. A BSF patrol party from Pansar border outpost (BOP) had noticed this HexaCopter flying at a height of 200 feet from Pakistan towards the Indian side at around 5.10am. The drone fell nearly 250 metres on the Indian side of the border after the BSF party fired several rounds at it. Fitted with four batteries, a radio signal receiver and two GPS devices, it was 8 feet x 6.2 feet in size and weighed 18kg. The drone was carrying a payload of nearly 5kg, including a US-made M4 semi-automatic carbine, two magazines, 60 rounds and seven China-made hand-grenades. The payload marked with the name of one Ali Bhai, who BSF suspected, must have been present within 1.5km from the spot to receive the consignment.
Saga Of The Panj Pyarees (Five Musketeers)
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