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The IAF is planning to acquire “manoeuvrable expendable aerial target” drones with flares at the tail-end that will serve as targets for laser-guided bombs and missiles fired from fighter aircraft that will give a more visibly accurate account of the outcome of firing at exercises such as the one that was held last week over the deserts of Pokhran in Rajasthan.
Sources said the IAF wants these drones to be acquired so that it can move to a more modern system of hitting targets from the current “archaic” system of firing at flares. They said the IAF had moved a proposal before the ministry of defence about six months ago for the acquisition of these drones that can be used as targets during an air-exercise. Sources said that currently if a missile explodes even very near a flare instead of hitting it directly, it can be counted as a success since the missile would have hit the target had it been an aircraft instead of just a flare.
The IAF said that it was looking into one incident in which a laser-guided bomb malfunctioned during the recent exercise that had been dropped from an indigenous “Tejas” light combat aircraft.