2 days ago

Could BEL’s VAHAK-6 Be India’s Answer to the Airborne Drone Mothership?

A new unmanned aerial system concept called VAHAK-6, developed in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), proposes extending the operational reach of smaller drones by carrying them aboard a larger unmanned aircraft before deploying them closer to the mission area.

The two-tier system is built around SABAL 20, a larger UAV that acts as an airborne mothership capable of transporting a mission-configurable fleet of up to six ALAKH drones. The concept is designed to allow the smaller UAVs to conserve their own endurance during transit while the carrier aircraft moves them toward the operational zone.

In a typical mission profile, SABAL 20 would launch from a forward operating base with the smaller drones onboard. During the journey, the mothership itself could conduct aerial surveillance and provide situational awareness before releasing the ALAKH drones closer to the area of interest.

Once deployed, the smaller UAVs could be configured for different mission roles, including surveillance, reconnaissance or strike-oriented missions, allowing multiple unmanned assets to operate in coordination across a wider area.

The concept is intended to improve the operational flexibility of smaller drones by enabling airborne deployment nearer to the mission zone, supporting combinations of surveillance and strike assets, and reducing the need for personnel to move deeper into contested environments.

The proposed architecture also reflects a growing trend in unmanned aviation toward “mothership and swarm” concepts, where a larger platform serves as a carrier, communications node or surveillance asset while smaller drones perform specialised tasks after launch.

According to the concept description, VAHAK-6 can carry up to six ALAKH drones, although the accompanying animation depicts only four for visual clarity. The animation illustrates a notional mission sequence beginning with launch from a forward base, followed by transit, aerial release of the drones and coordinated operations over multiple objectives.

The developers have emphasised that the visuals are conceptual renders intended to demonstrate the proposed mission workflow, rather than footage of an operational system. If translated into a deployable platform, the VAHAK-6 architecture could offer a flexible approach to extending the reach of small UAVs while combining surveillance and other mission capabilities within a single unmanned system.

By Subramanya Joshi