The Milkor Group has various offerings under its umbrella, one of the subsidiaries whose mandate revolves around the development and production of unmanned programmes for the Group, is growing substantially given the demand in the domain. Responsible for communications, controls, autonomy and system integration, Milkor Integrated Systems (MIS) has overseen the complete product development, manufacturing, delivery and support of Milkor’s autonomous platform solutions.

Milkor Defence aims to bring this technology to India and be a supplier of choice to countries with emerging industries that struggle to access this technology. The expansion comes amid increasing global demand for unmanned solutions to meet the challenges around border security. The most prominent domain where unmanned technology is being utilised is in the Air sector, given the introduction of UAVs and the capability they bring to armed forces.

The Custodian LT is Milkor’s flagship MALE UCAV which is being offered in a weaponised configuration, it can be fitted with six guided weapons and various payloads to perform multiple operations. MIS has specifically developed all critical aspects on the Milkor unmanned programmes entirely inhouse – amongst others but notably including communications, avionics, automation and control, mission pre-sets and navigation systems. This advancement in development allows for unrestricted control over the UCAV and includes the upgrade of avionics and communication of existing systems.

Specific in-house developments allow for a full spectrum of capabilities without International Traffic in Arms Regulation or other control regime restrictions. The communication systems allow for a customizable solution that features bandwidth switching, STANAG 4586 encryption compatibility and crossplatform applications. On board payload processing units allow data to be processed from multiple payloads. This allows an aggregation capability that can combine information from multiple payloads and allocate bandwidth to priority payloads as required.

As India looks towards self-reliance, entities that can offer complete solutions are gaining traction. The ability to have a platform locally made, serviced and maintained on the ground by a domestic vendor may be the solution.