Exactly
Just double the payload for military grade.
There is no limit to payload, even flying cars tested in china are just drones with a pilot.
But let say they use that DJI drone, use the drone to lift supplies, the guys on peaks changes batteries and send stuff back down. The guys on top, use solar panels to charge the batteries.
Chinese already have surveillance cameras on mountain peaks powered by solar.
Where as in a typical scenario, the drone shows the time remaining for it to get back to the launch site. But if you have freshly charged spares batteries in location B, you can cover twice the distance or hover for longer time.
It's not about sensors but taking off at night from the altitude of those airfields that limits them. Giving our airforce a clear advantage.
We already know how difficult operations are given the conditions at DBO in daytime let alone at night. There are narrow windows where you can take off and not. The only workable airfields they have are in XJ and those are further away. The ones in Tibet are only good for resupply. Landing with load isn't a problem. Taking off is the problem.
They can take off with light fuel load and have a tanker 300km away to refuel mid air. Further more their J16 are 1 ton lighter, thanks to use of more composite materials, lighter AESA radar and their domestic engine produces 2 tons of more trust, so they have a total of 3 tons of additional load carrying capacity compared to our Su30mki. For air to air their J20 is far ahead in terms of trust to weight ratio and lower RCS.
Red flag doesn't do high altitude operations because NATO doesn't expect to fight in these theatres. Neither do Russians expect to do operations there.
Redflag is done mainly at high altitude only, most air to air combat training is done at the aircrafts max flight envelope. Every air to air and air to ground missiles/bombs fly further when launched at max altitude.
You will fight with half everything meaning you need large numbers. Which then makes you a tempting high value target since the Tibetan plateau is like a tabletop with nowhere to hide. Everything viewable by satellite and we can count on US Intel here. That's assuming those left which the environment didn't kill off already.
Which makes it harder for them to target us since we have slopes but they do not.
This may be true but even the IAF chief said it will take lot of bombs to even disable a runway and as ukraine war as shown, they are fixed quite fast. Hardened shellters take even more bombs and missiles.
Yes in a nice flat plain. The effects will be reduced if they try this in the mountains. How effective will they be?
Any explosion will have lethal effects to a living being in a enclosed area, in mountains that shockwave will have no where to dispate and its going to shred the lungs and blood vessels.
That's what a strike corps does. Go on the offensive. We've got two mountain strike corps. We're definitely going in.
While the military might willing to do the mission. The government would not want to escalate. Even the public will pressure not to escalate. Example right after Balakot air strike, I remember people on the streets having banners that said "no war".
Only good for resupply and those supply lines are very long and vulnerable
They do have good roads and rail connectivity.
Very difficult to launch offensive operations from Tibet
They have edge in number of ballistic and cruise missiles. They also have the edge in number of aircrafts. They will first try to take out SAM sites and disable as many aircrafts on the ground. Strikes on bridges and tunnel entrances.
The question is what purpose can you serve. Dropping small bombs here and there. How many of those drones would you need?
Everything you know about drones and their operations elsewhere needs to be configured for the mountain terrain we will be fighting in. A very different proposition.
Drones are not a game changer. Not a force multiplier. Just another option with specific applications.
This is a typical problem we see for long now. Concept or idea x, y, z in any field works great abroad but needs heavy customisation to be usable in an Indian context otherwise it will be a total flop.
Drones both air , Sea and land have been used in Ukraine to deadly effects. Simple FPV drones can take out anything that is on the ground. Once AI powered drones are deployed, then can operate autonomously without GPS and radio/video link.
Drones are the future and any country that is behind in this will see a huge defeat on the battlefield.