Indian Navy's 'spotter drones', US-origin MQ-9Bs supported ISRO's Gaganyaan TV-D1

ISRO's Gaganyaan TV-D1 test flight, conducted on Saturday (Oct 21) was done with unprecedented defence asset mobilisation. The operation involved the active participation of the Indian Navy's surface and aerial assets, as the Maritime force was entrusted with capturing and transmitting the mission progress footage and recovering the adrift crew module from the Bay of Bengal and returning it safely to the nearest port, Chennai. Throughout the process of descent of the crew module, its phased parachute deployment, splashdown and recovery operations, Indian Navy's air assets provided continuous live coverage. WION has learnt that the Indian Navy deployed indigenous 'Spotter drones' and the US-origin General Atomics MQ-9B Sea Guardian remotely piloted aircraft as part of this operation.

The TV-D1 test was meant to prove how a crew module (structure carrying the astronauts) could be ejected from a flying rocket, if and when a mishap took place mid-flight. This is similar to how a fighter pilot pulls the ejection handle beneath the seat, in order to bailout from an aircraft that was facing grave malfunction or an imminent crash. Given the thousands of moving parts in a rocket and the very high speeds and altitudes it travels at, errors can build up anytime and rapidly cause a mishap. Therefore, it is crucial to be able to save the astronauts from any imminent catastrophe and at various flight conditions. Saturday's test was about ejecting the crew module, when the rocket was flying at an altitude of 11.9km and a speed of Mach 1.2 (1481kmph). In this mission, the parachutes began to deploy in a phased manner, the crew module began its descent from 16.8km (more than 55,000 feet). 

Until five minutes into the mission, the visuals of the parachute deployment and gradual descent were captured by the on-board cameras mounted atop the crew module. However, five minutes into the mission, when the drogue parachutes were released and the main parachutes were deployed, ISRO's live stream began to show never-seen-before infrared visuals of the crew module. The crew module was at an altitude of around 2.5km at that time and the live video was being captured from well above and afar from the crew module. This close monitoring and live-streaming is learnt to have been carried out by the Navy's MQ-9B Sea Guardian Drone, two of which have been leased from the American firm General Atomics. As the events unfolded off the coast of Sriharikota, the live footage was broadcast at the Mission Control Centre of the spaceport.

The MQ-9B Sea Guardian is a remotely piloted aircraft that operates via satellite link. According to General Atomics, this highly sophisticated drone can deliver real-time situational awareness anywhere in the maritime domain, during day or night conditions. Sea Guardian not only integrates the most advanced maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, but it is also the first remotely piloted aircraft system in its class to enable real-time search and patrol above and below the ocean's surface. The real-time aerial videos streamed by ISRO also show how the aerial platform was flying amid the clouds, while continuously tracking the descent path of the crew module. 

In addition to this, there were indigenous hexa-copter 'Spotter drones' that were operating from the decks of the Navy ships, that was part of this operation. "These drones have been built in our Pune facility, with the support of the Indian Navy and nearly 100 of them operate with various classes of ships. They have the unique capability of taking-off and landing vertically, even from a warship that moving at 35kmph. Powered by lithium-ion batteries, these Spotter drones have a flight endurance of 90-120minutes and can operate up to heights of 1kilometre" Captain Nikunj Parashar, Managing Director of Sagar Defence Engineering, the firm that builds the Spotter drones, told WION. He added that their drones carried out the real-time imaging and live streaming of the low altitude phase of the mission and recovery operation of the crew module.

Describing their firm as an innovative engineering company, he lists out that they have built India's first weaponized unmanned surface boats and that they are also developing cargo hauling drones (150kg payload category) for the Indian Navy. Queried about the capability of their drones in harsh maritime environment and weather conditions, Captain Parashar told WION that they have been specifically designed for the harsh challenges that the drones encounter at the altitudes of up to one kilometre. 

Notably, this entire operation at sea was carried out on Saturday, when there was a well-marked low pressure area developing into a depression, in the South east Bay of Bengal. 

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