Policy to deal with UAVs soon
NSG, CISF may be empowered to shoot down rogue' drones, low-flying objects.
New Delhi: The Centre is contemplating on authorising security forces like the elite NSG and CISF, which protect important industrial and other strategic assets, to destroy low-flying unidentified objects like gliders, drones or any other UAVs that may pose a potential security hazard and could lead to a possible terror attack.
The government is in the process of finalising a draft policy that would deal with all security related aspects of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) as intelligence agencies have indicated that terror outfits can use drones, gliders or other pilot-less flying devices to launch a terror attack.
The home ministry has already held a series of meetings with other stakeholders, including the ministry of civil aviation, Air Force, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), National Security Guard (NSG) as part of a consultation process to chalk out a detailed policy on threats from rogue low flying objects and how these can be dealt with.
Sources said the Centre was keen on putting in place stringent guidelines to regulate the use of such flying objects.
A possibility discussed during one of the meetings was to shoot down unidentified low flying objects.
The draft policy, sources added, was in the final stages, following which it would be put out in public domain to invite response and then a foolproof security mechanism will be prepared.
One of the important components of the draft policy would be to empower NSG and CISF to shoot down such rogue low-flying objects, for which the two security forces would be equipped with state-of-the-art technology like powerful early warning radars, radio frequency jammers and other electro magnetic devices.
The move will help check the misuse of UAVs near sensitive installations like airports, industrial and nuclear units as well as close to the international border.
The need for having such a policy has also been necessitated due to the fact that in the past some UAVs have been detected close to a few airports, thus raising a security alarm. As of now, there is no well-defined policy or law to deal with incidents of unauthorised drones or UAVs.