An Indian Army officer has developed a ‘microcopter’ that can sniff out hiding terrorists inside buildings or rooms and carry out surveillance.

The device has been developed completely indigenously by Lieutenant Colonel GYK Reddy. The microcopter is tried and tested by the Para Special Forces battalion in J&K. Further changes and upgrades are underway, according to reports.   

The device comes with the capability of flying for two hours at an altitude up to 4, 500 meters. The drone-like device can vertically take-off and land, according to Mohit Bansal of ideaForge. ideaForge is the same firm that developed the Netra drone that’s used by the Indian army for surveillance and reconnaissance operations. 

Earlier, the same day, the Indian Army also awarded ideaForge a $20 million contract for a confidential number of SWITCH tactical drones. The SWITCH drones are made to be used by infantry and Special Forces. These drones operate in high altitude areas like Ladakh and can carry surveillance up to 15 km from an altitude of 4,000 meters. 

It has been an eventful year for defence-related indigenous creation for India. Recently DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) also revealed India’s first indigenous machine pistol ASMI. The pistol developed by DRDO with the help of the Indian Army is set to replace the currently used 9mm pistols.  

According to DRDO’s statement, these pistols are comparable to the Uzi series of guns that are created in Israel. The ASMI pistols can be fired from at a distance of 100 meters. 

News agency ANI reported, “India’s first indigenous machine pistol ASMI developed jointly by DRDO and Indian Army displayed today at the Army’s innovation display event. The gun would be offered to replace the 9mm pistols in the defence forces.”  

In another promising development, the world’s first universal bulletproof jacket ‘Shakti’ was revealed a few days ago. Developed by Indian Army’s Major Anoop Mishra, ‘Shakti’ can be used by both female and male army personnel. The ‘Shakti’ jackets are also one of a kind, by being the world’s first flexible body armour.  

The ‘Shakti’ vest can be an extremely useful addition to Indian Army’s armoury. The flexible nature of the bulletproof vest will allow it to absorb bullet and shrapnel impacts and effectively reduce penetration to the torso from projectiles from explosions. 

The jacket is also unisex and thus allows both men and female army combatants across all army ranks to wear it and carry out their operations with complete protection.