New Delhi, Sept. 27: The Indian Air Force is raising a special cadre of “remote control warriors” that will be dedicated to flying Israel-supplied unmanned aerial vehicles after practically junking an Indian-made drone that has been found to be good enough for target practice only.

The air force sees the need for a committed cadre of at least 300 for the Israeli-made Searcher Mark II and the Heron UAVs — the IAF’s “eyes in the sky” — that are also now being used for internal security operations with two deployed for surveillance in Naxalite territory in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The cadre will increase with the expansion of the UAV fleet.

The acquisition of the Israeli-made UAVs is being done alongside dismal results that the IAF has reported with the Nishant Remotely Piloted Vehicle made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Aeronautical Development Establishment in Bangalore.

So poor has the feedback on the Nishant been that the IAF has quietly been using it as only target aircraft. IAF fighters hone their shooting skills by firing at the target aircraft version of the Nishant — called the Lakshya...