The Indian Navy has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the procurement of a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
The RFI, issued earlier this month, is for the procurement of, presumably, Naval Rotary UAVs (NRUAV). While there has been talk, recently, of the possibility of Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout being procured by the Indian Navy, especially in light of the delays in the conversion of the Chetak helicopter into an unmanned platform, the navy’s stand is all vendors will have to go through this process begun with the RFI.
Besides Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout, the other contenders could be EADS’ Orka 1200, Boeing’s Hummingbird and Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) Malat’s NRUAV. But besides the Fire Scout, the navy understands the others to be still under development. The navy had a chance to consider the Austrian Schiebel’s Camcopter but has deemed it to small to match its requirements.
