History of drones:
The earliest UAV in the history of drones was seen in 1839 when Austrian soldiers attacked the city of Venice with unmanned balloons filled with explosives.
The Wright Brothers’ famous Kitty Hawk flight was in the autumn of 1900, and only 16 years later Great Britain developed the first pilotless winged aircraft: the Ruston Proctor Aerial Target.
The Aerial Target was based on designs by Nikola Tesla and was controlled with radio control much like the drones of today (though the technology was much more rudimentary.)
UAV technology improved throughout World War II and into the Cold War as well.
What we do know is that modern drone warfare began in earnest in 1982, when Israel coordinated the use of battlefield UAVs alongside manned aircraft to wipe out the Syrian fleet with very minimal losses. The Israeli Air Force used military drones to recon the enemy’s position, jam communications, and to act as decoys that would prevent the loss of pilot life.
The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Conceived in the early 1990s for aerial reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator carries cameras and other sensors. It was modified and upgraded to carry and fire two AGM-114 Hellfire.
missiles or other munitions. The aircraft entered service in 1995 and saw combat in the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the Iraq War, Yemen, the 2011 Libyan civil war, the 2014 intervention in Syria, and Somalia.
History of Commercial Drones :
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the history of non-military drone use began in earnest in 2006. Government agencies for disaster relief, border surveillance and wildfire fighting, while corporations began using drones to inspect pipelines and spray pesticides on farms.
As unmanned aerial vehicle technology improved in the military sector, those same technological improvements could be used in the private sector. However, you may be surprised to hear that recreational drone use only took off (pun intended) very recently, and it’s grown fast. One of the main reasons for this is that the Federal Aviation Administration had to be convinced that commercial drones were safe to allow and determine proper regulatory measures. 2006 was the
first year that the FAA issued a commercial drone permit. They issued an average of two of these permits a year for the next eight years – that was all that was requested.
Then, in 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that the company was considering using drones as a delivery method, igniting the public’s interest in drone history. In 2015, the FAA issued 1000 drone permits, a number which more than tripled to 3100 permits in 2016 and which has continued to grow in the time since.
History of Military Drones in India:
The Indian military was the first to acquire UAVs in the late 1990s from Israel and the Indian Air Force and Navy followed suit.
India first used military drones during the 1999 Kargil war against Pakistan for photo-reconnaissance along the Line of Control. After India lost an aircraft to a Pakistani infrared homing missile because of a highly inefficient and strategically weak drone system, Israel discreetly supplied the Indian Air Force with Searcher drones enabling them to acquire target information along the Line of Control. Since then, the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and several other private Indian companies started creating drones and developing UAV technologies. In India, the use of all (manned or automated) aerial vehicles are governed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Though UAVs were originally developed for the military and aerospace industries, drones have found their way into the mainstream because of the enhanced levels of safety and efficiency.
Some Examples of Drones :
DRDO Nishant:
It has been primarily designed for intelligence gathering over enemy territory. It is also used for reconnaissance, training, surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, and damage assessment.
DRDO Lakshya:
This is a target drone used for discreet aerial reconnaissance and target acquisition. It is
launched by a solid propellant rocket motor and sustained by a turbojet engine in flight.
DRDO Aura:
Similar to the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, this is a stealth drone capable of releasing missiles, bombs, and precision-guided munitions.
DRDO Rustom:
Modelled after the American Predator UAV, the Rustom is a Medium-Altitude LongEndurance (MALE) system. Like the Predator, the Rustom is designed to be used for
both reconnaissance and combat missions. It is expected to replace and supplement
the Israeli Heron model UAVs in the Indian Air Force.
