Индийский флот ищет беспилотники с дальностью до 1000 км для ударов с кораблей

The Ministry of Defence has issued a Request for Information for a Medium-Range Loitering Munition designed for ship-based operations, seeking a system the Indian Navy can launch from its warships to strike targets far out at sea as well as on land. The requirement, designated LM-MR, calls for a range of at least 1,000 kilometres, positioning it as a substantially longer-reach weapon than the loitering munitions India has fielded to date, most of which have been ground-launched systems designed for tactical rather than long-range naval strike roles. The technical specifications laid out in the RFI point to a genuinely demanding design brief. Beyond the 1,000 kilometre minimum range, the Navy is seeking a loiter endurance of at least nine hours, allowing the munition to hold station over a target area for extended surveillance and engagement windows before committing to an attack, alongside a loiter speed of at least 75 knots for fuel-efficient station-keeping and a substantially higher attack speed of at least 200 knots for the terminal engagement phase. The system is required to operate up to a ceiling of 15,000 feet and achieve a circular error probable of under one metre, an exceptionally tight precision requirement that would place the weapon in the same accuracy class as India’s most advanced precision-guided munitions. Survivability requirements are equally stringent, with the RFI specifying a radar cross-section of no more than one square metre, alongside a combined RF and satellite communication data link intended to give operators both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight control over the munition throughout its loiter and engagement phases. Physical size constraints have also been specified, with the munition capped at a maximum length of 2.5 metres and a maximum wingspan of three metres, dimensions compact enough to fit within standard vertical launch or canister-based shipboard launch systems already used across the Navy’s frontline destroyer and frigate classes. The dual land-and-sea targeting requirement is a notable feature of the specification, positioning LM-MR as a genuinely multi-role naval strike weapon capable of engaging opportune targets, ships, coastal installations, or inland high-value assets identified during its extended loiter phase, rather than a single-purpose anti-ship or land-attack system. That flexibility, combined with the long loiter endurance and precision requirement, suggests the Navy is looking for a weapon that functions partly as a persistent overwatch and reconnaissance asset and partly as a precision strike system, similar in concept to how loitering munitions have been employed in recent conflicts to identify, track, and then engage time-sensitive or opportunistic targets rather than being committed against pre-planned coordinates alone. The programme adds to a broader expansion of India’s loitering munition ecosystem across all three services in recent years, spanning the Army’s shorter-range Nagastra and CALM systems developed by Economic Explosives Limited and Z-Motion Autonomous Systems, and the Air Force’s own RFI for a 500-1,000 kilometre ground-launched BVLOS loitering munition. LM-MR’s naval, ship-launched profile and considerably longer range and endurance requirements distinguish it from those tactical, land-based systems, positioning it closer in concept and reach to a long-range precision strike weapon than to the smaller loitering munitions currently used for tactical battlefield engagement, and reflecting the Navy’s own push to expand long-range precision strike options that can be launched directly from its surface combatants without requiring dedicated missile inventory for every opportune target encountered at sea.