Unmanned Combat Systems (UCS)

Why in News?

• Recently, India is on a drive to induct Unmanned Combat Systems (UCS) into the military. In August, 2022 it inducted “Swarm Drones” into its mechanized forces, reiterating the importance of autonomous systems in creating a “future-proof” Indian Navy (IN).

Highlights

• Despite their growing usage in armed conflict, artificially intelligent unmanned combat systems raise questions of law, ethics and accountability.
• Unmanned Combat Systems (UCS) are going to be the new age weapons overturning the rules of future war and have been the focus of research and development of military powers.
• There are no generally accepted definitions for these so-called boasted core weapons of the 21st century. UCS from the research heading, is an integrated combat system comprising unmanned combat platforms, task payloads, command and control (C2) systems and network systems.
• For field applications, they can be categorized into,

• Deep space unmanned systems
• Unmanned aerial vehicle systems
• Ground unmanned systems
• Surface unmanned systems
• Underwater unmanned systems

• Faced with the increasingly complex international situation and brutal military wars, the lives and safety of combat soldiers are greatly threatened.
• At this time, the unmanned combat System is becoming increasingly important and has gradually become an important attack and defense force on the information battlefield.
• The biggest feature of the ground unmanned combat platform is that it can carry certain weapons and equipment under the premise of unmanned participation, and be remotely controlled through the configured wireless communication equipment to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance, electronic interference, and direct combat.
• UCS has a higher degree of automation, good remote control, strong digital communication ability and anti-interference, excellent target detection and recognition ability, good concealment, and strong adaptability to the ground environment.